Deuteronomy 20:15-19

¹⁵Thus shalt thou do vnto all ye cities, which are a great way off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations here.

¹⁶But of the cities of this people, which the Lord thy God shall giue thee to inherite, thou shalt saue no person aliue,

¹⁷But shalt vtterly destroy them: to wit, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hiuites, and the Iebusites, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee,

¹⁸That they teache you not to doe after all their abominations, which they haue done vnto their gods, and so ye should sinne against the Lord your God.

¹⁹When thou hast besieged a citie long time, and made warre against it to take it, destroy not the trees therof, by smiting an axe into them: for thou mayest eate of them: therfore thou shalt not cut them downe to further thee in the siege, (for the tree of the field is mans life)