¹¹ Now listen to me! Send back your fellow Israelites you have taken as prisoners, for the Lord’s fierce anger rests on you.^(A)”

¹³ because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.^(A) Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Concluding Exhortations

13 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.^{(A) 2} Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers,^(B) for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.^{(C) 3} Continue to remember those in prison^(D) as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.^(A)

¹⁴ ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’^[a](A) Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention^(B) to me. ¹⁵ Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people.^(C) You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name.^(D)

¹⁴ Let our officials act for the whole assembly. Then let everyone in our towns who has married a foreign woman come at a set time, along with the elders and judges^(A) of each town, until the fierce anger^(B) of our God in this matter is turned away from us.”

⁸ The men of Israel took captive from their fellow Israelites who were from Judah^(A) two hundred thousand wives, sons and daughters. They also took a great deal of plunder, which they carried back to Samaria.^(B)