nor any internal
sedition seize upon it, whereby you may do things that are contrary to
your fathers, and so lose the laws which they have established. And may
you continue in the observation of those laws which God hath approved
of, and hath delivered to you. Let all sort of warlike operations,
whether they befall you now in your own time, or hereafter in the times
of your posterity, be done out of your own borders: but when you are
about to go to war, send embassages and heralds to those who are your
voluntary enemies, for it is a right thing to make use of words to them
before you come to your weapons of war; and assure them thereby, that
although you have a numerous army, with horses and weapons, and, above
these, a God merciful to you, and ready to assist you, you do however
desire them not to compel you to fight against them, nor to take from
them what they have, which will indeed be our gain, but what they will
have no reason to wish we should take to ourselves. And if they hearken
to you, it will be proper for you to keep peace with them; but if they
trust in their own strength, as superior to yours, and will not do you
justice, lead your army against them, making use of God as your supreme
Commander, but ordaining for a lieutenant under him one that is of the
greatest courage among you; for these different commanders, besides
their being an obstacle to actions that are to be done on the sudden,
are a disadvantage to those that make use of them. Lead an army pure,
and of chosen men, composed of all such as have extraordinary strength
of body and hardiness of soul; but do you send away the timorous part,
lest they run away in the time of action, and so afford an advantage
to your enemies. Do you also give leave to those that have lately built
them houses, and have not yet lived in them a year's time; and to those
that have planted them vineyards, and have not yet been partakers of
their fruits,--to continue in their own country; as well as those also
who have betrothed, or lately married them wives, lest they have such an
affection for these things that they be too sparing of their lives,
and, by reserving themselves for these enjoyments, they become voluntary
cowards, on account of their wives.

42. When you have pitched your camp, take care that you do nothing that
is cruel. And when you are engaged in a siege; and want timber for the
making of warlike engines, do not you render the land naked by cutting
down