Matthew 22-23 (Amplified Bible)

Matthew 22

 ¹AND AGAIN Jesus spoke to them in parables (comparisons, stories used to illustrate and explain), saying,

    ²The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son

    ³And sent his servants to summon those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they refused to come.

    ⁴Again he sent other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have prepared my banquet; my bullocks and my fat calves are killed, and everything is prepared; come to the wedding feast.

    ⁵But they were not concerned and paid no attention [they ignored and made light of the summons, treating it with contempt] and they went away--one to his farm, another to his business,

    ⁶While the others seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and put them to death.

    ⁷[Hearing this] the king was infuriated; and he sent his soldiers and put those murderers to death and burned their city.

    ⁸Then he said to his servants, The wedding [feast] is prepared, but those invited were not worthy.

    ⁹So go to the thoroughfares where they leave the city [where the main roads and those from the country end] and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.

    ¹⁰And those servants went out on the crossroads and got together as many as they found, both bad and good, so [the room in which] the wedding feast [was held] was filled with guests.

    ¹¹But when the king came in to view the guests, he looked intently at a man there who had on no wedding garment.

    ¹²And he said, Friend, how did you come in here without putting on the [appropriate] wedding garment? And he was speechless (^[a]muzzled, gagged).

    ¹³Then the king said to the attendants, Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the darkness outside; there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.

    ¹⁴For many are called (invited and summoned), but few are chosen.

    ¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and consulted and plotted together how they might entangle Jesus in His talk.

    ¹⁶And they sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that You are ^[b]sincere and what You profess to be and that You teach the way of God truthfully, regardless of consequences and being afraid of no man; for You are impartial and do not regard either the person or the position of anyone.

    ¹⁷Tell us then what You think about this: Is it lawful to pay tribute [levied on individuals and to be paid yearly] to Caesar or not?

    ¹⁸But Jesus, aware of their malicious plot, asked, Why do you put Me to the test and try to entrap Me, you pretenders (hypocrites)?

    ¹⁹Show me the money used for the tribute. And they brought Him a denarius.

    ²⁰And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and title are these?

    ²¹They said, Caesar's. Then He said to them, Pay therefore to Caesar the things that are due to Caesar, and pay to God the things that are due to God.

    ²²When they heard it they were amazed and marveled; and they left Him and departed.

    ²³The same day some Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection [of the dead], came to Him and they asked Him a question,

    ²⁴Saying, Teacher, Moses said, If a man dies, leaving no children, his brother shall marry the widow and raise up a family for his brother.^(A)

    ²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married and died, and, having no children, left his wife to his brother.

    ²⁶The second also died childless, and the third, down to the seventh.

    ²⁷Last of all, the woman died also.

    ²⁸Now, in the resurrection, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her.

    ²⁹But Jesus replied to them, You are wrong because you know neither the Scriptures nor God's power.

    ³⁰For in the resurrected state neither do [men] marry nor are [women] given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven.

    ³¹But as to the resurrection of the dead--have you never read what was said to you by God,

    ³²I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead but of the living!^(B)

    ³³And when the throng heard it, they were astonished and filled with [^[c]glad] amazement at His teaching.

    ³⁴Now when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced (^[d]muzzled) the Sadducees, they gathered together.

    ³⁵And one of their number, a lawyer, asked Him a question to test Him.

    ³⁶Teacher, which ^[e]kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? [Some commandments are light--which are heavy?]

    ³⁷And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).^(C)

    ³⁸This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.

    ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself.^(D)

    ⁴⁰These two commandments ^[f]sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets.

    ⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were still assembled there, Jesus asked them a question,

    ⁴²Saying, What do you think of the Christ? Whose Son is He? They said to Him, The Son of David.

    ⁴³He said to them, How is it then that David, under the influence of the [Holy] Spirit, calls Him Lord, saying,

    ⁴⁴The Lord said to My Lord, Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet?^(E)

    ⁴⁵If then David thus calls Him Lord, how is He his Son?

    ⁴⁶And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day did anyone venture or dare to question Him.

   

Matthew 23

 ¹THEN JESUS said to the multitudes and to His disciples,

    ²The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat [of authority].

    ³So observe and practice all they tell you; but do not do what they do, for they preach, but do not practice.

    ⁴They tie up heavy loads, hard to bear, and place them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not lift a finger to help bear them.

    ⁵They do all their works to be seen of men; for they make wide their phylacteries (^[g]small cases enclosing certain Scripture passages, worn during prayer on the left arm and forehead) and make long their fringes [worn by all male Israelites, according to the command].^(F)

    ⁶And they ^[h]take pleasure in and [thus] love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues,

    ⁷And to be greeted with honor in the marketplaces and to have people call them rabbi.

    ⁸But you are not to be called rabbi (teacher), for you have one Teacher and you are all brothers.

    ⁹And do not call anyone [in the church] on earth father, for you have one Father, Who is in heaven.

    ¹⁰And you must not be called masters (leaders), for you have one Master (Leader), the Christ.

    ¹¹He who is greatest among you shall be your servant.

    ¹²Whoever exalts himself [^[i]with haughtiness and empty pride] shall be humbled (brought low), and whoever humbles himself [whoever has a modest opinion of himself and behaves accordingly] shall be ^[j]raised to honor.

    ¹³But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces; for you neither enter yourselves, nor do you allow those who are about to go in to do so.

    ^14[k]Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you swallow up widows' houses and for a pretense to cover it up make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation and the heavier sentence.

    ¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes one [a proselyte], you make him doubly as much a child of hell (Gehenna) as you are.

    ¹⁶Woe to you, blind guides, who say, If anyone swears by the ^[l]sanctuary of the temple, it is nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the ^[m]sanctuary, he is a debtor [bound by his oath].

    ¹⁷You blind fools! For which is greater: the gold, or the ^[n]sanctuary of the temple that has made the gold sacred?^(G)

    ¹⁸You say too, Whoever swears by the altar is not duty bound; but whoever swears by the offering on the altar, his oath is binding.

    ¹⁹You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar which makes the gift sacred?

    ²⁰So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

    ²¹And he who swears by the ^[o]sanctuary of the temple swears by it and by Him Who dwells in it. [I Kings 8:13; Ps. 26:8.]

    ²²And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by Him Who sits upon it.

    ²³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you give a tenth of your mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected and omitted the weightier (more important) matters of the Law--right and justice and mercy and fidelity. These you ought [particularly] to have done, without neglecting the others.

    ²⁴You blind guides, filtering out a gnat and gulping down a ^[p]camel!^(H)

    ²⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but within they are full of extortion (prey, spoil, plunder) and grasping self-indulgence.

    ²⁶You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and of the plate, so that the outside may be clean also.

    ²⁷Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you are like tombs that have been whitewashed, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men's bones and everything impure.

    ²⁸Just so, you also outwardly seem to people to be just and upright but inside you are full of pretense and lawlessness and iniquity.^(I)

    ²⁹Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,

    ³⁰Saying, If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have aided them in shedding the blood of the prophets.

    ³¹Thus you are testifying against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

    ³²Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' sins to the brim [so ^[q]that nothing may be wanting to a full measure].

    ³³You serpents! You spawn of vipers! How can you escape the ^[r]penalty to be suffered in hell (Gehenna)?

    ³⁴Because of this, take notice: I am sending you prophets and wise men (interpreters and teachers) and scribes (men learned in the Mosaic Law and the Prophets); some of them you will kill, even crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue and persecute from town to town,

    ³⁵So that upon your heads may come all the blood of the righteous (^[s]those who correspond to the divine standard of right) shed on earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar [of burnt offering].^(J)

    ³⁶Truly I declare to you, all these [^[t]evil, calamitous times] will come upon this generation. [II Chron. 36:15, 16.]

    ³⁷O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, murdering the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a mother fowl gathers her brood under her wings, and you refused!

    ³⁸Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate (abandoned and left destitute of God's help). [I Kings 9:7; Jer. 22:5.]

    ³⁹For I declare to you, you will not see Me again until you say, Blessed (magnified in worship, adored, and exalted) is He Who comes in the name of the Lord!^(K)