Deuteronomy 20:12

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it:

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וְצַרְתָּ֖

tsûwr

H6696

“and · to besiege”

Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 36× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 23:22

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 1898 , 1899 , 1900

to bind, besiege, confine, cramp - (Qal) - to confine, secure - to shut in, beseige - to shut up, enclose - (Qal) to show hostility to, be an adversary, treat as foe - (Qal) to form, fashion, delineate

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְצַרְתָּ֖ to besiege H6696 occurs in 36 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
1 noun
3 prepositions
1 conjunction
1 particle

Verb forms

תַשְׁלִים֙ Hiphil · Imperfect
וְעָשְׂתָ֥ה Qal · Sequential Perfect
וְצַרְתָּ֖ Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

עִמָּ֔ךְ with H5973 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 19 words from the Hebrew and 17 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 13 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Deuteronomy 20:12 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְאִם לֹ֤א תַשְׁלִים֙ עִמָּ֔ךְ וְעָשְׂתָ֥ה עִמְּךָ֖ מִלְחָמָ֑ה וְצַרְתָּ֖ עָלֶֽיהָּ

If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 20:12 Septuagint · lemma form

ἐάν δέ μή ὑποἀκούω σύ καί ποιέω πρός σύ πόλεμος περι καταἵζω αὐτός

But if they will not listen to you, but wage war against you, you shall invest it;

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְאִם לָא תַשְׁלֵם עִמָךְ וְתַעְבֵּד עִמָךְ קְרָב וּתְצוּר עֲלַהּ

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְאִין לָא תַשְׁלִים עִמְכוֹן וְתַעֲבֵיד עִמְכוֹן קְרָבָא וְתֵקְפוּן עֲלָהּ

But if they will not make peace, but war, with you, then you shall beleaguer it.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Deuteronomy 20:12 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

12. But if it will make no peace with thee … thou shalt besiege, i.e. confine or blockade it.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And if it will make no peace with thee,.... Will not accept of terms of peace offered:

but will make war against thee; come out and fight, or prepare to defend themselves: then thou shall besiege it; surround and block it up on all sides with their forces; the Jews say only on three sides, leaving one for any to flee and make their escape if they thought fit; See Gill on Num 31:7.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Besiege it. The Rabbins assert, that when the city of Madian was attacked in the days of Moses, one side was left unmolested, that the inhabitants might escape, and that this practice was afterwards observed as a law. But we see nothing of the kind in Scripture.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

12. If it will make no peace — If the city does not submit without fighting, then it is to be besieged, and, when taken by storm, the armed men are to be put to death, the women and children spared.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

If the hostile town, however, did not make peace, but prepared for war, the Israelites were to besiege it; and if Jehovah gave it into their hands, they were to slay all the men in it without reserve ("with the edge of the sword," see at Gen 34:26); but the women and children and all that was in the city, all its spoil, they were to take as prey for themselves, and to consume (eat) the spoil, i.e., to make use of it for their own maintenance.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

But if it makes no offer of peace

Here "it" refers to the city which represents the people. AT: "But if the people of the city do not surrender" or "But if the people of the city do not accept your offer of peace" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

siege

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

ואם לא תשלים עמך ועשתה עמך מלחמה — Scripture tells you that if it does not make peace with you it will in the end make war against you (attack you) — if you leave it alone and go away (Sifrei Devarim 200:4). (The translation therefore is: AND IF IT WILL MAKE NO PEACE WITH THEE. IT WILL WAR AGAINST THEE).

וצרת עליה THEN THOU SHALT BESIEGE IT — This implies that you are entitled even to starve it out, to make it suffer thirst and to kill it (the inhabitants) by mortal diseases (Sifrei Devarim 200:5).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 9 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is tsûwr (“to besiege”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to besiege” (tsûwr) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Exodus 23:22 shares the word «to besiege» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“with” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «תַשְׁלִים֙» is Hiphil Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
“with” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.