The People of the Scripture ask you to bring down to them a book from the heaven. But they had asked of Moses [even] greater than that and said, "Show us Allah outright," so the thunderbolt struck them for their wrongdoing. Then they took the calf [for worship] after clear evidences had come to them, and We pardoned that. And We gave Moses a clear authority. 153 And We caused the Mount to tower above them at (the taking of) their covenant: and We bade them: Enter the gate, prostrate! and We bode them: Transgress not the Sabbath! and We took from them a firm covenant. 154 Then because of their breaking of their covenant, and their disbelieving in the revelations of Allah, and their slaying of the prophets wrongfully, and their saying: Our hearts are hardened - Nay, but Allah set a seal upon them for their disbelief, so that they believe not save a few - 155 And for their blasphemy and for their speaking against Maryam a mighty calumny. 156 and for their saying, 'We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God' -- yet they did not slay him, neither crucified him, only a likeness of that was shown to them. Those who are at variance concerning him surely are in doubt regarding him; they have no knowledge of him, except the following of surmise; and they slew him not of a certainty -- no indeed; 157 nay, God exalted him unto Himself - and God is indeed almighty, wise. 158 There is not one among the people of the Book who will not believe in it before his death; and he will be a witness over them on the Day of Resurrection. 159 Because of the wickedness of some among the Jews, and because they obstructed people from the way of God, We forbade them many things which were lawful for them; 160 And [for] their taking of usury while they had been forbidden from it, and their consuming of the people's wealth unjustly. And we have prepared for the disbelievers among them a painful punishment. 161 But of them those well-grounded in the Knowledge and the believers believe in that which hath been sent down unto thee and that which hath been sent down before thee, and the establishers of prayer and the givers of the poor-rate and the believers in Allah and the Last Day - those: unto them anon We shall give a mighty hire. 162