1Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples,
2saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves on Moses’ seat.
3Therefore, do and observe all that they tell you, but do not do according to their works, for they speak but do not do.
4They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
5They do all their works to be seen by people; for they make their phylacteries wide and their tassels long.
6They love the place of honor at banquets, the best seats in the synagogues,
7greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people.
8But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.
9And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, the heavenly one.
10Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ.
11The greatest among you will be your servant.
12Whoever 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 in front of people. For you yourselves do not enter, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and dry land to make a single proselyte, 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 by his oath.’
17You fools and blind men! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold holy?
18And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it is bound by his oath.’
19You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy?
20Therefore, whoever 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 who dwells in it.
22And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the one who sits on 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 faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
24Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a 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, so that its outside may become clean also.
27Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but on the inside are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.
28So you also on the outside appear righteous to people, but on the inside 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 lived 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.
32Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
33You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?
34Therefore, behold, I am sending 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 city to city,
35so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
36Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
38Behold, your house is left to you.
39For I say to you, you will certainly not see me from now on until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
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