A Plea for Justice

A Psalm of Asaph.

²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(A)For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and ^(B)have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. ²⁴ Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(C)For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and ^[a]self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

²⁷ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(D)For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

^29 (E)“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and ^[b]adorn the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’