Matthew 23

1Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples,

2saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.”

3Therefore, do and keep everything they tell you, but do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do.

4They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on the shoulders of men, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with their finger.

5But they do all their works to be seen by people, for they widen their phylacteries and enlarge their tassels.

6And they love the place of honor at banquets and the seats of honor in the synagogues,

7and greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by people, ‘Rabbi.’

8But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for one is your teacher, and you are all brothers.

9And call no man on earth your father, for one is your Father, the heavenly One.

10Do not be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah.

11But the greatest among you will be your servant.

12But whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

13But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven before people; for you do not enter, nor do you allow those who are entering to enter.

14Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and as a pretext make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel over sea and land to make one 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.’

17You fools and blind men, for which is greater: the gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold?

18And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift on top of it is obligated.’

19Blind men, for which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

20Therefore, the one who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

21And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by the One dwelling in it.

22And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the one seated upon it.

23Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

24Blind guides, straining out the gnat but swallowing the camel!

25Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

26Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the dish, so that its outside also may become clean.

27Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead people's bones and every kind of uncleanness.

28In the same way, you also outwardly appear righteous to people, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,

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

31So you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

32And you, fill up the measure of your fathers.

33You snakes, offspring of vipers! How will you escape from the judgment of Gehenna?

34Therefore, 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 persecute from city to city.

35so that all the righteous blood shed on the earth may come upon you, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

36Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

37Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing!

38Look, your house is left to you desolate.

39For I tell you, from now on you will certainly not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’