19 Then because the religious teachers and the chief priests knew that Yeshua had used that parable to speak about them, they tried at the time to capture him, but couldn’t because they were afraid of the number of people around. 20 So after watching Yeshua closely, they sent agents who pretended to be genuine inquirers so that they could catch him out on some careless statement and then they could hand him over to the rule and authority of the Roman governor. 21 They asked him, “Teacher, we know that you say what is right, and that you teach the truth about God’s way without being influenced by people. 22 So tell us, should we pay tax to the Roman emperor or not?”

23 But having observed their craftiness, he said to them, 24 “Show me a coin. Whose image and inscription is on it?”

“The emperor’s,” they replied. 25 “So then,” Yeshua continued, “Give the emperor what belongs to him, and what belongs to God, give to God.”

26 So they weren’t able to catch him out by making a treasonable statement in front of the people—in fact they were stunned by his answer and didn’t ask anything else.