16
Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, `Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.`
17
You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
18
`Whoever will swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever will swear by the gift that is on it, he is a debtor.`
19
You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
20
He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it.
21
He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who is living in it.
22
He who swears by the heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.
23
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law - justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
24
You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
25
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.
26
You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside of it may become clean also.
27
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men`s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28
Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous,
30
and say, `If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.`
31
Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are sons of those who killed the prophets.
32
Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
33
You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?
34
Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them will you kill and crucify; and some of them will you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city;
35
that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
36
Most assuredly I tell you, all these things will come on this generation.