¹³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you don’t go in, and you don’t allow those entering to go in.^[a](A)

¹⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to make one convert,^(B) and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as you are!

¹⁴ Leave them alone! They are blind guides.^[a] And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”^(A)

Israel’s Rejection of Christ

9 I speak the truth in Christ^(A)—I am not lying; my conscience testifies to me through the Holy Spirit^[a]—

Psalm 52

God Judges the Proud

For the choir director. A Maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite went and reported to Saul, telling him, “David went to Ahimelech’s house.”^(A)

¹⁵ “Be on your guard against false prophets^(A) who come to you in sheep’s^(B) clothing^(C) but inwardly are ravaging wolves.^{(D) 16} You’ll recognize them by their fruit.^(E) Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles?^{(F) 17} In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.^{(G) 20} So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.^(H)

⁴⁸ But if that wicked servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delayed,’ ⁴⁹ and starts to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with drunkards,^{(A) 50} that servant’s master will come on a day he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know. ⁵¹ He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

²⁵ All the people answered, “His blood be on us^(A) and on our children!”

³⁴ This is why I am sending you prophets,^(A) sages, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues^(B) and pursue from town to town.

² They will ban you from the synagogues.^(A) In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service^(B) to God.