Deuteronomy 20:16
King James VersionSource notes
“But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:”
Context
13And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:
14But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
15Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities very far off from thee, which not of the cities of these nations.
16But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
17But thou shalt utterly destroy them; the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
18That 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.
19When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field man’s ) to employ in the siege: