John 7:53–8:11

8⁵³Then they all went home, ¹but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.^r

²At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.^{s 3}The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.^t Now what do you say?” ⁶They were using this question as a trap,^u in order to have a basis for accusing him.^v

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone^w at her.”^{x 8}Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,”^y Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”^z