²⁷ “See!” he said to all the people. “This stone^(A) will be a witness^(B) against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue^(C) to your God.”^(D)

⁴⁰ “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”^(A)

³⁴ And the Reubenites and the Gadites gave the altar this name: A Witness^(A) Between Us—that the Lord is God.

³³ But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.^(A)

²⁷ On the contrary, it is to be a witness^(A) between us and you and the generations that follow, that we will worship the Lord at his sanctuary with our burnt offerings, sacrifices and fellowship offerings.^(B) Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to ours, ‘You have no share in the Lord.’

²⁸ “And we said, ‘If they ever say this to us, or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the Lord’s altar, which our ancestors built, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a witness^(C) between us and you.’

²⁶ “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. There it will remain as a witness against you.^(A)

A Rebellious Nation