There seems much mercy in this precept, and it is not confined we may suppose to trees only, but of a general tendency, in war to preserve all that can be consistently done, that there may be no waste of any of the good things of GOD'S providence. It is one of the distinguishing characters of the gospel church, that neither violence nor destruction shall be heard within her borders: Isaiah 60:18.
Related Commentaries of Deuteronomy 20:19
Deuteronomy 20:19-20
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:
20 Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.