A. 19 When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it,

B. thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down

C. (for the tree of the field is man’s life)

B’. to employ them in the siege: 20 Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down;

A’. and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.