Matthew 23:23-35
New King James Version
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (A)For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and (B)have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (C)For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and [a]self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (D)For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 (E)“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and [b]adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that (F)you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 (G)Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. 33 Serpents, (H)brood[c] of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 (I)Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: (J)some of them you will kill and crucify, and (K)some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 (L)that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, (M)from the blood of righteous Abel to (N)the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Matthew 23:25 M unrighteousness
- Matthew 23:29 decorate
- Matthew 23:33 offspring
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.