1 THEN Jesus addressed the crowd and his disciples.
2 He said, "The scribes and Pharisees have seated themselves on Moses' seat.
3 So whatever they tell you, do and observe, but do not do as they do. For they say and do not.
4 They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
5 All their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and make their tassels large.
6 They love the best couches at dinners and the front seats in the synagogues
7 and salutations in the markets and to be called by men Rabbi.
8 But do not you be called Rabbi. For one is your Teacher and all of you are brothers.
9 And do not call any one on earth Father, for one is your Father in heaven.
10 Neither be called guides, for your Guide is one alone \'97 the Christ.
11 The greatest of you will be your servant.
12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13 "But alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut the kingdom of heaven before men. You yourselves do not enter nor do you permit those who are entering to go in.
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15 Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is won you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves.
16 Alas for you, blind guides! You say, 'Whoever swears by the Temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the Temple is bound.'
17 Fools and blind, which is greater, the gold or the Temple that makes the gold holy?
18 You say, 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound.'
19 You blind, which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy?
20 He, then, who swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it,
21 and he who swears by the Temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it,
22 and he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
23 "Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithes of mint, dill, and carraway and have disregarded the weightier matters of the law \'97 justice and kindness and good faith. These you should have practiced, without neglecting those other things.
24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and drink down a camel!
25 Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full through greed and self-indulgence.
26 Blind Pharisees, cleanse first the inside of your cup so that the outside of it may become clean also.
27 Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs which outside appear beautiful, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of uncleanness.
28 So you, too, outwardly appear to men to be righteous, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 "Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous
30 and say, 'If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'
31 So you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.
33 Serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape being sentenced to Gehenna?
34 Therefore I am sending to you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and will persecute from city to city,
35 so that all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar, may come on you.
36 I tell you truly all this will come on this generation.
37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often would I fain have gathered your children as a bird gathers her nestlings under her wings, and you would not.
38 See, your house is left to you desolate,
39 for I tell you, you will not see me from now on until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!' "