Matthew 23:23-39

Complete Jewish Bible

²³ “Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You pay your tithes of mint, dill and cumin; but you have neglected the weightier matters of the Torah — justice, mercy, trust. These are the things you should have attended to — without neglecting the others! ²⁴ Blind guides! — straining out a gnat, meanwhile swallowing a camel!

²⁵ “Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Parush! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside may be clean too.

²⁷ “Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but inside are full of dead people’s bones and all kinds of rottenness. ²⁸ Likewise, you appear to people from the outside to be good and honest, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and far from Torah.

²⁹ “Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P’rushim! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the tzaddikim, ³⁰ and you say, ‘Had we lived when our fathers did, we would never have taken part in killing the prophets.’ ³¹ In this you testify against yourselves that you are worthy descendants of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Go ahead then, finish what your fathers started!

³³ “You snakes! Sons of snakes! How can you escape being condemned to Gei-Hinnom? ³⁴ Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and Torah-teachers — some of them you will kill, indeed, you will have them executed on stakes as criminals; some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. ³⁵ And so, on you will fall the guilt for all the innocent blood that has ever been shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Hevel to the blood of Z’kharyah Ben-Berekhyah, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar. ³⁶ Yes! I tell you that all this will fall on this generation!

³⁷ “Yerushalayim! Yerushalayim! You kill the prophets! You stone those who are sent to you! How often I wanted to gather your children, just as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you refused! ³⁸ Look! God is abandoning your house to you, leaving it desolate.^{[a] 39} For I tell you, from now on, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of Adonai.’”^[b]