Matthew 23:13-36

New Matthew Bible

¹³ Woe is to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven before men. You yourselves go not in, neither do you suffer those who come to enter in.

¹⁴ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You devour widows’ houses, and that under a colour of praying long prayers, for which you shall receive the greater damnation.

¹⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who compass land and sea to bring one person into your belief. And when he is brought in, you make him twofold more the child of hell than you yourselves are.

¹⁶ Woe to you, blind guides, who say that if someone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but whosoever swears by the gold of the temple, he offends. ¹⁷ O fools, and blind! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? ¹⁸ And whosoever swears by the altar, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering that lies on the altar, offends – ¹⁹ Ye fools, and blind! Which is greater: the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering? ²⁰ Whoever therefore swears by the altar, swears by it and by all that is on it. ²¹ And whoever swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells therein. ²² And he who swears by heaven, swears by the seat of God and by him who sits upon it.

²³ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who tithe mint, anise, and cummin, and leave the weightier matters of the law undone: judgment, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done, and not to have left the others undone. ²⁴ Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

²⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of greed and excess. ²⁶ You blind Pharisee: cleanse first the inside of the cup and platter, so that the outside of them may be clean also.

²⁷ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like painted tombs, which appear beautiful outwardly, but within are full of dead bones and of all uncleanness. ²⁸ This is how you are, for outwardly you appear righteous to men, when within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

²⁹ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets, and adorn the sepulchres of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in the blood of the prophets. ³¹ So then, you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the children of those who killed the prophets! ³² Fill up then likewise the cup of your fathers. ³³ Serpents and offspring of vipers, how can you escape the judgment of hell?

³⁴ And so behold: I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, ³⁵ so that upon you may come all the righteous blood that was shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.