Deuteronomy 20

Deuteronomy 20:4

Augustine of Hippo: For the Lord your God, who goes before you, will fight with you against your enemies and save you. This is how we also have to wait in spiritual struggles and we must ask for God’s help, not so that we do not do anything, but so that, helped, we cooperate with him. Well, the text says: You will win by your side. This shows that they too have to do what they show that must be done. — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 30 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Deuteronomy 20:5

Clement of Alexandria: Again, the law in its humanity says that if a man has built a new house but has not yet moved in, or laid out a new vineyard but has not yet enjoyed the fruit, or become betrothed to a girl but has not yet married her, he is to be excused military service. This makes military sense, since we would be unenthusiastic in our military service if we were being pulled in the direction of the things we longed for. People expose themselves to danger without a second thought only if they are free in relation to natural impulses. It is also humane, in the calculation that the outcome of war is uncertain and it is unjust for such a man not to benefit from his own labors or for someone else who has taken no trouble to possess the property of those who have put in the work. — The Stromata Book 2

Augustine of Hippo: And the scribes will speak to the people, saying: “Who is the man who has built a new house and has not released it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle and another man release it. Who is the man who has dug a vineyard and has not enjoyed it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle and another man enjoy it. Who is the man who has married a woman and has not taken her yet? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle and another man take her for a wife. " These affirmations can draw attention, as if those who already opened their buildings died and died in the battle more honorably and already enjoyed the recently planted vines and already married than those who did not do those things. But since these things retain human affection and men hold them in great esteem, it must be understood, starting from this passage, that this is said to those who go to war, so that whoever is held by these things in his mind appears , when he comes back, so that he does not act less courageously because of it, when he is afraid of dying before opening the house or enjoying his newly planted vineyard or getting married. Because, in fact, as far as women are concerned, a woman is married better to an intact woman than a widow. But these things are mentioned, as I said, to know the intentions of men. — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 31 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Deuteronomy 20:19

Clement of Alexandria: The Logos in his goodness, richly equipped with love of humankind, teaches that it is not right to cut down cultivated trees, still less to cut crops for purposes of vandalism before harvest, and even less still to destroy, root and branch, cultivated fruit, whether of the land or of the soul. It does not even allow the razing of enemy land. Yes, and farmers find their profit from the law. It enjoins them to take care of their young trees right to their third year, pruning them to prevent them being oppressed by excessive weight and being weakened through shortage of a nourishment spread too thinly. It enjoins them to trench and dig around them to prevent parasites from inhibiting their growth. It does not allow the harvesting of immature fruit from immature trees. After three years, the first fruits are to be consecrated to God after the tree has reached maturity. — The Stromata Book 2