Deuteronomy 20 — Dead Sea Scrolls
1 attestation entry • 0 variants • 4QDeut family
Manuscript Overview
Summary
Deuteronomy 20 contains the laws of warfare, including the famous draft-exemption speech and the differentiation between distant and Canaanite cities. 4QDeutᵏ² preserves vv. 6–19.
Notable Variants
No significant content variants in the preserved passages. The siege-warfare and tree-protection laws (vv. 19–20) track MT.
Manuscripts
4QDeutᵏ² (4Q38a)
Scroll Condition
Moderate coverage of the chapter via 4QDeutᵏ².
When you besiege a city for an extended time, waging war against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you must not cut them down. Is a tree of the field a human being, that it should be besieged by you?
The fruit-tree protection law ('Is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you?') tracks MT.
4QDeutᵏ² frag.