Deuteronomy 20:19

19

When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, 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 (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege:1 for, O man, the tree of the field is to be employed in the siege2 to go from before thee