Deuteronomy 20:18-20

New Catholic Bible

¹⁸ Otherwise they will teach you to perform the abominations that they practice when they worship their gods, and you would be sinning against the Lord, your God.

¹⁹ Preserving Trees. When you besiege a city and it lasts a long time, and you do battle with it and capture it, do not cut down its trees with an ax, for you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down! Are trees in the field like people that you would lay siege to them? ²⁰ However, you can cut down those trees that are not fruit trees to use on the siege-works until the city you are fighting falls.