The People of the Book ask you to bring down for them a book from heaven. Of Moses they demanded a greater thing than that. They said to him: "Show us God face to face." A thunderbolt struck them for their wickedness. After that, they took to worshipping the [golden] calf, after all evidence of the truth had come to them! Yet We pardoned even that and bestowed on Moses clear authority. 153 raising Mount Sinai high above them in witness of their solemn pledge. And We said unto them, "Enter the gate humbly"; and We told them, "Do not break the Sabbath-law"; and We accepted from them a most solemn pledge. 154 So (they were punished) for breaking the covenant and disbelieving the signs of God, and for killing the prophets unjustly, and saying: "Our hearts are enfolded in covers," (though) in fact God had sealed them because of their unbelief; so they do not believe except a few; 155 Also for their disbelief and their saying about Mary a great calumny, 156 and their boast, "Behold, we have slain the Christ Jesus, son of Mary, [who claimed to be] an apostle of God!" However, they did not slay him, and neither did they crucify him, but it only seemed to them [as if it had been] so; and verily, those who hold conflicting views thereon are indeed confused, having no [real] knowledge thereof, and following mere conjecture. For, of a certainty, they did not slay him: 157 Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise;- 158 Yet there is not one of the followers of earlier revelation who does not, at the moment of his death, grasp the truth about Jesus; and on the Day of Resurrection he [himself] shall bear witness to the truth against them. 159 Because of the wrongdoing of the Jews We forbade them good things which were (before) made lawful unto them, and because of their much hindering from Allah's way, 160 and for their taking usury, that they were prohibited, and consuming the wealth of the people in vanity; and We have prepared for the unbelievers among them a painful chastisement. 161 Those among them who are firmly rooted in knowledge and the believers, such do believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you. (Those who truly believe) establish the Prayer and pay Zakah, those who firmly believe in Allah and in the Last Day, to them We shall indeed pay a great reward. 162