Matthew / Seven Woes on the Scribes and Pharisees

Seven Woes on the Scribes and Pharisees

Matthew 23:1-39

Chapter 23

¹ Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples. ² saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sat down on the chair of Moses." ³ So whatever they tell you, do and observe; but do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do. ⁴ They bind heavy burdens and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. ⁵ But they do all their works to be seen by others. For they widen their phylacteries and enlarge their tassels, ⁶ and they love the places of honor at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues. ⁷ and the greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, "Rabbi." ⁸ But you, do not be called Rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹ And do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your Father, the heavenly one. ¹⁰ nor be called leaders, for you have one leader, the Christ. ¹¹ But the greatest among you will be your servant. ¹² But whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. ¹³ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven before men. For you neither enter, nor do you allow those who are entering to enter. ¹⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you go around the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and whenever he becomes one, you make him a son of Gehenna twofold more than yourselves. ¹⁶ Woe 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." ¹⁷ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold holy? ¹⁸ And whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he owes. ¹⁹ "Blind ones, for which is greater, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering?" ²⁰ Therefore, whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹ And the one swearing by the temple swears by it and by the one who inhabits it. ²² And the one swearing by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the one sitting upon it. ²³ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you tithe the mint and the dill and the cumin, and you have neglected the weightier things of the Law: the Judgment and the mercy and the Faith—these it was necessary to do and those not to neglect. ²⁴ Blind guides who strain out the gnat but swallow the camel. ²⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of plunder and excess. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that its outside also becomes clean. ²⁷ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you resemble whitewashed tombs, which outwardly indeed appear beautiful but inwardly are full of bones of dead men and all uncleanness. ²⁸ In the same way, you outwardly appear righteous to others, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. ²⁹ Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the Prophets and adorn the memorials of the Righteous. ³⁰ and you say, "If we were in the days of our fathers, we would not have been their partners in the blood of the prophets." ³¹ so you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who killed the prophets. ³² And you fill up the measure of your fathers. ³³ Serpents, offspring of vipers, how can you flee from the judgment of Gehenna? ³⁴ For this reason, behold, I send to you prophets and 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 all righteous blood poured out on the earth might come upon you, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ Amen, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. ³⁷ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one killing the prophets and stoning those sent to her—how often I wanted to gather your children, the way a bird gathers its nestlings under its wings, and you did not want! ³⁸ Behold, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I say to you, you will by no means see me from now until you say, "Blessed is the one coming in the name of the Lord."