Matthew 23:13-36

21st Century King James Version

¹³ “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

¹⁴ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

¹⁵ “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

¹⁶ “Woe unto you, ye blind guides, who say, ‘Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’

¹⁷ Ye fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

¹⁸ And ye say, ‘Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is liable.’

¹⁹ Ye fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?

²⁰ Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it and by all things thereon.

²¹ And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it and by Him that dwelleth therein.

²² And he that shall swear by Heaven, sweareth by the throne of God and by Him that sitteth thereon.

²³ “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone.

²⁴ Ye blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

²⁵ “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

²⁶ Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

²⁷ “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but are within full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.

²⁸ Even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

²⁹ “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,

³⁰ and say, ‘If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

³¹ Therefore ye are witnesses against yourselves, that ye are the children of them that killed the prophets.

³² Fill ye up, then, the measure of your fathers.

³³ “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers! How can ye escape the damnation of hell?

³⁴ Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city,

³⁵ that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

³⁶ Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation.