Matthew 23

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

²saying: On the seat of Moses sit the scribes and the Pharisees;

³All things therefore, whatever they tell you, keep and do; but according to their works do not act; for they say and do not act.

⁴And they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of men, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

⁵But all their deeds they do to be seen by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and enlarge the tassels of their garments.

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

⁷and the greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men Rabbi, Rabbi.

⁸But you, do not be called Rabbi; for one is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brothers.

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

¹⁰Neither be called instructors, for one is your instructor, the Christ.

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 men; for you yourselves do not enter, nor do you allow those entering to go in.

¹⁴Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour the houses of widows, and for a pretext make long prayers; therefore you will receive a greater judgment.

¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you traverse the sea and the dry land to make one convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

¹⁶Woe to you, blind guides, who say: Whoever swears by the sanctuary, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound.

¹⁷Fools and blind! 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 that is upon it is bound.

¹⁹Fools and blind! 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 the one who swears by the sanctuary 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, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and you have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these you ought to have done, without neglecting those.

²⁴Blind guides, who strain out the gnat but swallow the camel!

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

²⁶Blind Pharisee! Cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside of it also may become clean.

²⁷Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you resemble whitewashed tombs, which outwardly indeed appear beautiful, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all impurity.

²⁸So also you outwardly indeed appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

²⁹Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous.

³⁰and you say: If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been their partners 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!

³³Serpents, offspring of vipers! How shall you escape from the judgment of hell?

³⁴Therefore 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 flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town;

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

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

³⁷Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing!

³⁸Behold, your house is left to you desolate!

³⁹For I say to you, you will certainly not see me from now until you say: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!