Matthew 23

1Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples:

2The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.

3So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, because they do not practice what they preach.

4They tie up heavy loads and put them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

5Everything they do is done for people to see. They make their prayer boxes wide and the tassels on their clothes long.

6They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues.

7They love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have people call them Rabbi.

8But you must not be called Rabbi, because you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters.

9Do not call anyone on earth your father, because you have one Father, and He is in heaven.

10Nor should you be called teacher, because you have one Teacher, the Christ.

11The greatest among you will be your servant.

12Whoever exalts themselves will be humbled, and whoever humbles themselves will be exalted.

13How terrible it will be for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, and you will not let those who wish to enter go in.

14How terrible it will be for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You take advantage of widows and rob them of their houses, and to cover it up you make long, showy prayers. So you will receive an even greater punishment.

15How terrible it will be for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You cross land and sea to win one person to your beliefs, and when you succeed, you make that person twice as much a child of hell as you are.

16How terrible it will be for you, blind guides! You say: If anyone swears by the temple, that means nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold in the temple, that person is bound by the oath.

17You blind fools! Which is more important, the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

18You also say: If anyone swears by the altar, that means nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift on the altar, that person is bound by the oath.

19You blind ones! Which is more important, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

20So anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

21And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who lives in it.

22And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the One who sits on it.

23How terrible it will be for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your mint, dill, and cumin, but you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced these without neglecting the others.

24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

25How terrible it will be for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will be clean too.

27How terrible it will be for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

28In the same way, on the outside you appear righteous to others, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

29How terrible it will be for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.

30And you say: If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.

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

32Go ahead, then, and finish what your ancestors started!

33You snakes! You family of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

34That is why I am sending you prophets, wise people, and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Others you will whip in your synagogues and chase from town to town.

35So that upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

36I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

37Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

38Look, your house is left to you empty and abandoned.

39For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.