Common misinterpretations treat this verse as endorsing indiscriminate genocide, slavery, or sexual violence applicable to all wars or modern contexts, overlooking its restriction to specific divinely mandated conquests of idolatrous Canaanites in distant cities; others assume universal brutality toward captives, ignoring broader biblical protections for war captives like marriage rights and inheritance bans on forced labor, or fail to recognize it as temporary theocratic policy not prescriptive for other nations or eras.
Deuteronomy 20:14
King James Version (1769)
14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.
Deuteronomy 20:14 outlines God's instructions to Israel during the conquest of distant Canaanite cities, permitting the taking of women, children, and livestock as spoils of war after the defeat of the male combatants, emphasizing divine provision for Israel's needs and judgment against nations given over by the Lord due to their wickedness, within the covenantal framework of holy war that underscored Israel's obedience and separation from idolatry.