²¹ They answered, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”^(A)

⁷ Pay to all what is due them: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

¹⁹ But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge;^(A)

³⁷ He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^(A)

Corruption of the Priesthood

⁶ A son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is the honor due me? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. You say, “How have we despised your name?”^{(A) 7} By offering polluted food on my altar. And you say, “How have we polluted it?”^[a] By thinking that the Lord’s table may be despised.^{(B) 8} When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not wrong? Try presenting that to your governor; will he be pleased with you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.^(C)

¹³ For the Lord’s sake be subject to every human authority,^[a] whether to the emperor as supreme^{(A) 14} or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. ¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. ¹⁶ As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.^{(B) 17} Honor everyone. Love the family of believers.^[b] Fear God. Honor the emperor.^(C)

²⁰ When he came near the den where Daniel was, he cried out anxiously to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you faithfully serve been able to deliver you from the lions?”^{(A) 21} Daniel then said to the king, “O king, live forever! ²² My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him; also before you, O king, I have done no wrong.”^{(B) 23} Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in his God.^(C)

² They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man inciting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to Caesar and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.”^[a](A)

²⁹ But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.^[a](A)