³³ They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants^(A) and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

⁹ And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’^(A) I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

³⁹ “Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,”^(A) said Jesus, “then you would^[a] do what Abraham did.

³⁷ I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me,^(A) because you have no room for my word.

⁴ Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax^(A) on our fields and vineyards. ⁵ Although we are of the same flesh and blood^(B) as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery.^(C) Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”^(D)

⁶ When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. ⁷ I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!”^(E) So I called together a large meeting to deal with them ⁸ and said: “As far as possible, we have bought^(F) back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.^(G)