How terrible it will be for you who destroy others but have not been destroyed yet. How terrible it will be for you, traitor, whom no one has turned against yet. When you stop destroying, others will destroy you. When you stop turning against others, they will turn against you.
“So this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me. You have not given freedom to your fellow Hebrews, neither relatives nor friends. But now I will give freedom, says the Lord, to war, to terrible diseases, and to hunger. I will make you hated by all the kingdoms of the earth.
“The Lord’s day of judging is coming soon to all the nations. The same evil things you did to other people will happen to you; they will come back upon your own head.
Give, and you will receive. You will be given much. Pressed down, shaken together, and running over, it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.”
So you must show mercy to others, or God will not show mercy to you when he judges you. But the person who shows mercy can stand without fear at the judgment.
Give that city the same as she gave to others. Pay her back twice as much as she did. Prepare wine for her that is twice as strong as the wine she prepared for others.
Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings whose thumbs and big toes had been cut off used to eat scraps that fell from my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them.” The men of Judah took Adoni-Bezek to Jerusalem, and he died there.
Samuel said to him, “Your sword made other mothers lose their children. Now your mother will have no children.” And Samuel cut Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.