New International Version
Deuteronomy 20:18
18Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 20:18 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God.
- English Standard Version (ESV)that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.
- New King James Version (NKJV)lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.
- New Living Translation (NLT)This will prevent the people of the land from teaching you to imitate their detestable customs in the worship of their gods, which would cause you to sin deeply against the Lord your God.
Context of Deuteronomy 20:18
16However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God. 19When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them? 20However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls.
Read all of Deuteronomy 20Deuteronomy 20:18 word by word
לְמַ֗עַן אֲשֶׁ֨ר לֹֽא־יְלַמְּד֤וּ אֶתְכֶם֙ לַעֲשׂ֔וֹת כְּכֹל֙ תּֽוֹעֲבֹתָ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשׂ֖וּ לֵֽאלֹהֵיהֶ֑ם וַחֲטָאתֶ֖ם לַיהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃ סRead the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Deuteronomy 20:18
- Deuteronomy 7:4for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.
- Deuteronomy 12:30and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.”
- Deuteronomy 18:19I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.
- Exodus 23:33Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.”
- Joshua 23:13then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you.
- Judges 2:3And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.’ ”
- Psalms 106:34They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them,
- 1 Corinthians 15:33Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
- 2 Corinthians 6:17Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
- Ephesians 5:11Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
- 2 Thessalonians 3:14Take special note of anyone who does not obey our instruction in this letter. Do not associate with them, in order that they may feel ashamed.
- 1 Timothy 6:5and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
- 2 Timothy 2:17Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,
- Revelation 18:3For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”
Commentaries on Deuteronomy 20:18
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 10-20Verses 10-20 Directions intended to prevent wanton destruction of life and property in sieges. Deuteronomy 20:16 Forbearance, however, was not to be shown toward the Canaanite nations, which were to be utterly exterminated (compare Deuteronomy 7:1-4). The command did not apply to beasts as well as men (compare Joshua 11:11, Joshua 11:14). Deuteronomy 20:19 The parenthesis may he more literally rendered “for man is a tree of the field,” i. e., has his life…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 10-2010-20. When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it--An important principle is here introduced into the war law of Israel regarding the people they fought against and the cities they besieged. With "the cities of those people which God doth give thee" in Canaan, it was to be a war of utter extermination (De 20:17, 18). But when on a just occasion, they went against other nations, they were first to make a proclamation…Read the comment
Topics related to Deuteronomy 20:18
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Deuteronomy 20
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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