Matthew 23

¹Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, ²saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves on the seat of Moses. ³Therefore, do and observe everything they tell you, but do not act according to their works, for they talk but they do not act. ⁴They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on the shoulders of others, yet they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. ⁵They perform all their works to be watched by people: for they widen their prayer-cases and lengthen their tassels; ⁶they love the place of honor at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues, ⁷and greetings in the marketplaces, and being called ‘Rabbi’ by people.

⁸But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹And do not call anyone on earth ‘Father,’ for you have one Father—the Heavenly One. ¹⁰Nor are you to be called ‘Guides,’ because you have one Guide—the Christ. ¹¹Instead, the one who is greatest among you will be your servant. ¹²Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

¹³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you performers! Because you shut the Kingdom of the Heavens in people’s faces; for you do not enter yourselves, nor do you permit those who are trying to enter to go in. ¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you performers! Because you travel over sea and land to make a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves.

¹⁶Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the Temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the Temple is bound by the oath.’ ¹⁷You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the Temple that made the gold holy? ¹⁸And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it is bound by the oath.’ ¹⁹You blind ones! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy? ²⁰Therefore, the one who swears by the altar swears both by it and by everything on it. ²¹And the one who swears by the Temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it. ²²And the one who swears by Heaven swears by the throne of God and by the One who sits upon it.

²³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you performers! Because you pay a tenth of your mint and dill and cumin, but you have abandoned the weightier matters of the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. ²⁴Blind guides! You strain out the gnat but swallow the camel!

²⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you performers! Because you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and lack of self-control. ²⁶Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, so that its outside may also become clean. ²⁷Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you performers! Because you are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of uncleanness. ²⁸In the same way, you also appear just to people on the outside, but inside you are full of performance and lawlessness.

²⁹Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you performers! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the just, ³⁰and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹Thus you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³²Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers! ³³You snakes! You offspring of vipers! How can you escape the judgment of Gehenna?

³⁴Because of this, look, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, ³⁵so that upon you may come all the just blood shed on the earth, from the blood of just Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar. ³⁶Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

³⁷Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a bird gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁸Look, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹For I tell you, you will not see me again from now until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’”