¹¹ Now hear me, and send back the captives whom you have taken from your kindred, for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you.”^(A)

¹³ For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.^(A)

Service Well-Pleasing to God

13 Let mutual affection continue. ² Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.^{(A) 3} Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them, those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.^[a]

² For the judgment you give will be the judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.

⁷ “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

¹⁴ “Every seventh year each of you must set free any Hebrews who have been sold to you and have served you six years; you must set them free from your service.” But your ancestors did not listen to me or incline their ears to me.^{(A) 15} You yourselves recently repented and did what was right in my sight by proclaiming liberty to one another, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name,^(B)

¹⁴ Let our officials represent the whole assembly, and let all in our towns who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every town, until the fierce wrath of our God on this account is averted from us.”^(A)

Intervention of Oded

⁸ The people of Israel took captive two hundred thousand of their kin: women, sons, and daughters; they also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria.^(A)