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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Deuteronomy 20:10 - 20:10
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Instructions Concerning Sieges. - Deu 20:10, Deu 20:11. On advancing against a town to attack it, they were “to call to it for peace,” i.e., to summon it to make a peaceable surrender and submission (cf. Jdg 21:13). “If it answered peace,” i.e., returned an answer conducing to peace, and “opened” (sc., its gates), the whole of its inhabitants were to become tributary to Israel, and serve it; consequently even those who were armed were not to be put to death, for Israel was not to shed blood unnecessarily. מַס does not mean feudal service, but a feudal slave (see at Exo 1:11).