¹³ You shall give the pledge back by sunset, so that your neighbor may sleep in the cloak and bless you, and it will be to your credit before the Lord your God.^(A)

²⁷ Therefore, O king, may my counsel be acceptable to you: atone for^[a] your sins with righteousness and your iniquities with mercy to the oppressed, so that your prosperity may be prolonged.”^(A)

²⁵ If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right.’^(A)

¹⁵ You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt.^(A)

²⁶ If you take your neighbor’s cloak as guarantee, you shall restore it before the sun goes down, ²⁷ for it may be your neighbor’s only clothing to use as a cover. In what else shall that person sleep? And when your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate.

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

Faith without Works Is Dead

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it?^{(B) 15} If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food^{(C) 16} and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works, and I by my works will show you faith.^{(D) 19} You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.^{(E) 20} Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is worthless?^{[a] 21} Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?^{(F) 22} You see that faith was active along with his works, and by works faith was brought to completion.^{(G) 23} Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,”^[b] and he was called the friend of God.^(H)

²⁷ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.^(A)

¹⁶ May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain;^{(A) 17} when he arrived in Rome, he eagerly^[a] searched for me and found me ¹⁸ —may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! And you know very well how much service he rendered in Ephesus.^(B)