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Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.[a] So what do you say?”(A) They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.[b] [c]But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them,(B) “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

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Footnotes

  1. 8:5 Lv 20:10 and Dt 22:22 mention only death, but Dt 22:23–24 prescribes stoning for a betrothed virgin.
  2. 8:6 Cf. Jer 17:13 (RSV): “Those who turn away from thee shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water”; cf. Jn 7:38.
  3. 8:7 The first stones were to be thrown by the witnesses (Dt 17:7).