Deuteronomy 20:18-20

Revised Geneva Translation

¹⁸ “so that they do not teach you to follow after all their abominations which they have done for their gods, that you should sin against the LORD your God.

¹⁹ “When you have besieged a city for a long time, and made war against it, to take it, do not destroy its trees by striking them with an axe. If you may eat from them, then you shall not cut them down to further yourself in the siege, (for the tree of the field is man’s sustenance).

²⁰ “Only those trees which you know are not for food shall you destroy and cut down and make forts against the city that makes war with you, until you subdue it.”