4. The Officers Speaking Further to the People

According to verse 8, the officers were to speak further to the people, saying, "Is there any man who is afraid and whose heart fails? Let him go and return to his house, so that his brothers' heart does not melt like his heart." If such a one had remained, he would have affected others, causing them to be afraid. The army would have been stronger and the morale would have been higher without him. The formation of Gideon's army is an illustration of this (Judg. 7:3).

5. The Officers Appointing
Commanders of the Armies

After the officers had finished speaking to the people, the officers were to appoint commanders of the army (Deut. 20:9). This indicates that everything was done in a good order and in a good sequence.

6. The People Drawing Near to the City
to Fight against It and Proclaiming Peace to It

When the people drew near to the city to fight against it, they were to proclaim peace to it (v. 10). If it responded with peace and opened its gates to the children of Israel, all the people within the city were to become their forced labor and were to serve the children of Israel (v. 11). Otherwise, the children of Israel were to besiege the city (v. 12).

7. The Children of Israel
Slaying Every Male in the City
Which Had Been Delivered into Their Hand
but Taking as Plunder the Women, the Little Ones,
the Cattle, and All That Was in the City

When Jehovah their God delivered the city into the hand of the children of Israel, they were to slay every male in it with the edge of the sword (v. 13). But the women, the little ones, the cattle, and all that was in the city they were to take as their plunder for their enjoyment (v. 14).

8. Not Allowing Anything
That Breathed to Live of the Cities
Which Jehovah Their God Was Giving to
the Children of Israel as an Inheritance

Of the cities which Jehovah their God was giving to the children of Israel as an inheritance, they were not to allow anything that breathed to live (v. 16). Rather, the children of Israel had to utterly destroy them, so that they would not teach the children of Israel to do according to all their abominations which they did for their gods (vv. 17-18). The devilish practices were to be terminated by putting to death those who engaged in those practices.

9. When Besieging a City,
the Children of Israel Not Destroying
Its Trees Which Were Good for Food

When the children of Israel besieged a city for many days to capture it, they were not to destroy its trees which were good for food (v. 19). Instead, they were to destroy and cut down the trees which were not for food, that they might build up a siegework against the city until it fell (v. 20).