⁵³ And everyone left and went home.^[a]

The Woman Caught in Adultery

8 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ² But early in the morning he went back to the Temple. All the people came to Jesus, and he sat and taught them. ³ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought a woman there. She had been caught in adultery. They forced the woman to stand before the people. ⁴ They said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught having physical relations with a man who is not her husband. ⁵ The law of Moses commands that we kill with stones every woman who does this. What do you say we should do?” ⁶ They were asking this to trick Jesus so that they could have some charge against him.

But Jesus knelt down and started writing on the ground with his finger. ⁷ They continued to ask Jesus their question. So he stood up and said, “Is there anyone here who has never sinned? The person without sin can throw the first stone at this woman.” ⁸ Then Jesus knelt down again and wrote on the ground.

⁹ Those who heard Jesus began to leave one by one. The older men left first, and then the others. Jesus was left there alone with the woman. She was standing before him. ¹⁰ Jesus stood up again and asked her, “Woman, all of those people have gone. Has no one judged you guilty?”

¹¹ She answered, “No one has judged me, sir.”

Then Jesus said, “So I also don’t judge you. You may go now, but don’t sin again.”