Luke 11:37-53

International Children’s Bible

Jesus Accuses the Pharisees

³⁷ After Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee asked Jesus to eat with him. So Jesus went in and sat at the table. ³⁸ But the Pharisee was surprised when he saw that Jesus did not wash his hands^[a] before the meal. ³⁹ The Lord said to him, “You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish. But inside you are full of greed and evil. ⁴⁰ You are foolish. The same One who made what is outside also made what is inside. ⁴¹ So give what is in your cups and dishes to the poor. Then you will be fully clean. ⁴² But how terrible for you Pharisees! You give God one-tenth of even your mint, your rue, and every other plant in your garden. But you forget to be fair to other people and to love God. These are the things you should do. And you should also continue to do those other things—like giving one-tenth. ⁴³ How terrible for you Pharisees, because you love to get the most important seats in the synagogues. And you love people to show respect to you in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴ How terrible for you, because you are like hidden graves. People walk on them without knowing it.”

Jesus Talks to Teachers of the Law

⁴⁵ One of the teachers of the law said to Jesus, “Teacher, when you say these things, you are insulting us, too.”

⁴⁶ Jesus answered, “How terrible for you, you teachers of the law! You make strict rules that are very hard for people to obey. But you yourselves don’t even try to follow those rules. ⁴⁷ How terrible for you, because you build tombs for the prophets. But these are the prophets that your fathers killed! ⁴⁸ And now you show that you approve of what your fathers did. They killed the prophets, and you build tombs for the prophets! ⁴⁹ This is why in his wisdom God said, ‘I will send prophets and apostles to them. Some of my prophets and apostles will be killed, and others will be treated cruelly.’ ⁵⁰ So you who live now will be punished for the deaths of all the prophets who were killed since the beginning of the world. ⁵¹ You will be punished for the killing of Abel and for the killing of Zechariah.^[b] Zechariah was killed between the altar and the Temple. Yes, I tell you that you people who live now will be punished for them all.

⁵² “How terrible for you, you teachers of the law. You have hidden the key to learning about God. You yourselves would not learn, and you stopped others from learning, too.”

⁵³ When Jesus was leaving, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees began to give him trouble, asking him questions about many things.