Deuteronomy 20:4
Ver. 4. For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you,.... To battle, and therefore they had no reason to fear and be dismayed, to be fainthearted, terrified, and tremble:
fear not, I am with thee,.... Isa 41:10, this, according to the Misnah {f}, respects the ark, and so Jarchi, which was a symbol of the divine Presence, and went with them to battle; see Jos 6:4
to fight for you against your enemies, to save you; to annoy and destroy the one, and to protect and save the other; thus far the anointed priest addressed the people in an oration to this purpose: the account Maimonides gives of it is, that
"when they have set their ranks, and are near to a battle, the anointed of war stands on an high place, and all the ranks before him, and says to them in the holy tongue, "hear, O Israel", &c. unto to save you; and then another priest under him causes it to be heard by all the people with an high voice {g};''
he repeated what the anointed of war had said, and expressed it with a loud voice, that all might hear.
{f} Ut supra. (Misn. Sotab, c. 8. sect. 1.) {g} Hilchot Melachim, c. 7. sect. 3.