Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God – harshness toward those who have fallen, but ¹  God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; ²  otherwise you also will be cut off.

You must not rule over him harshly, ¹  but you must fear your God.

He must be with the one who bought him ¹  like a yearly hired worker. ²  The one who bought him ³  must not rule over him harshly in your sight.

You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly. ¹ 

Even though they have the appearance of wisdom ¹  with their self-imposed worship and false humility ²  achieved by an ³  unsparing treatment of the body – a wisdom with no true value – they in reality result in fleshly indulgence. ⁴ 

For they flee from the swords – from the drawn sword and from the battle-ready bow and from the severity of the battle.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, ¹  because you know that we will be judged more strictly. ² 

So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. Each ¹  of the Egyptians sold his field, for the famine was severe. ²  So the land became Pharaoh’s.

They made their lives bitter ¹  by ²  hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service ³  in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous. ⁴ 

You will then eat your own offspring, ¹  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ²  by which your enemies will constrict you.

Because of this I am writing these things while absent, so that when I arrive ¹  I may not have to deal harshly with you ²  by using my authority – the Lord gave it to me for building up, not for tearing down!

He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ¹  you in your villages.

and will secretly eat her afterbirth ¹  and her newborn children ²  (since she has nothing else), ³  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost, but with force and harshness ¹  you have ruled over them.