⁵³ you who have received the law that was given through angels^(A) but have not obeyed it.”

² For since the message spoken^(A) through angels^(B) was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,^(C)

¹⁹ Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions^(A) until the Seed^(B) to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels^(C) and entrusted to a mediator.^(D)

³⁸ He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel^(A) who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors;^(B) and he received living words^(C) to pass on to us.^(D)

² He said:

¹³ Not even those who are circumcised keep the law,^(A) yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh.^(B)

¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law?^(A) Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”^(B)

²³ You who boast in the law,^(A) do you dishonor God by breaking the law? ²⁴ As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”^[a](B)

²⁵ Circumcision has value if you observe the law,^(C) but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.^(D)

¹⁸ I said to their children in the wilderness, “Do not follow the statutes of your parents^(A) or keep their laws or defile yourselves^(B) with their idols. ¹⁹ I am the Lord your God;^(C) follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.^{(D) 20} Keep my Sabbaths^(E) holy, that they may be a sign^(F) between us. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.^(G)”

²¹ “‘But the children rebelled against me: They did not follow my decrees, they were not careful to keep my laws,^(H) of which I said, “The person who obeys them will live by them,” and they desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger^(I) against them in the wilderness.^(J)