For you became imitators, brothers and sisters, ¹  of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, because you too suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they in fact did from the Jews,

I have been on journeys many times, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, ¹  in dangers from my own countrymen, in dangers from Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, ²  in dangers at sea, in dangers from false brothers,

They ¹  will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; ²  the Lord alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them.

But just listen to what the Lord has to say about ¹  the king who occupies David’s throne and all your fellow countrymen who are still living in this city of Jerusalem ²  and were not carried off into exile with you.

For I could wish ¹  that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, ²  my fellow countrymen, ³ 

Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. ¹ 

If you make a sale ¹  to your fellow citizen ²  or buy ³  from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother. ⁴ 

You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites ¹  or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages. ² 

Stand in the sanctuary and, together with the Levites, represent the family divisions of your countrymen. ¹ 

Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves, and make preparations for your countrymen to do what the Lord commanded through Moses.” ¹ 

After him their relatives ¹  worked – Binnui ²  son of Henadad, head of a half-district of Keilah.

Go to the exiles, to your fellow countrymen, ¹  and speak to them – say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ whether they pay attention or not.”

So the Lord ¹  will hand the people of Israel ²  over to their enemies ³  until the time when the woman in labor ⁴  gives birth. ⁵  Then the rest of the king’s ⁶  countrymen will return to be reunited with the people of Israel. ⁷ 

I ¹  was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my nation, ²  and was ³  extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. ⁴ 

I will declare your name to my countrymen! ¹  In the middle of the assembly I will praise you!

Our inheritance ¹  is turned over to strangers; foreigners now occupy our homes. ² 

“Yet your people ¹  say, ‘The behavior ²  of the Lord is not right,’ ³  when it is their behavior that is not right.

When your people ¹  say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what these things mean?’

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 

Then he will not exalt himself above his fellow citizens or turn from the commandments to the right or left, and he and his descendants will enjoy many years ruling over his kingdom ¹  in Israel.