23Matthew 23

1Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,Select Matthew 23:1

2Saying: The scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses.Select Matthew 23:2

3All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not. For they say, and do not.Select Matthew 23:3

4For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens and lay them on men's shoulders: but with a finger of their own they will not move them.Select Matthew 23:4

5And all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their phylacteries broad and enlarge their fringes.Select Matthew 23:5

6And they love the first places at feasts and the first chairs in the synagogues,Select Matthew 23:6

7And salutations in the market place, and to be called by men, Rabbi.Select Matthew 23:7

8But be not you called Rabbi. For one is your master: and all you are brethren.Select Matthew 23:8

9And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven.Select Matthew 23:9

10Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, Christ.Select Matthew 23:10

11He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant.Select Matthew 23:11

12And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.Select Matthew 23:12

13But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for you yourselves do not enter in and those that are going in, you suffer not to enter.Select Matthew 23:13

14Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour the houses of widows, praying long prayers. For this you shall receive the greater judgment.Select Matthew 23:14

15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you go round about the sea and the land to make one proselyte. And when he is made, you make him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves.Select Matthew 23:15

16Woe to you, blind guides, that say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but he that shall swear by the gold of the temple is a debtor.Select Matthew 23:16

17Ye foolish and blind: for whether is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?Select Matthew 23:17

18And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it is a debtor.Select Matthew 23:18

19Ye foolish and blind: for whether is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?Select Matthew 23:19

20He therefore that sweareth by the altar sweareth by it and by all things that are upon it.Select Matthew 23:20

21And whosoever shall swear by the temple sweareth by it and by him that dwelleth in it.Select Matthew 23:21

22And he that sweareth by heaven sweareth by the throne of God and by him that sitteth thereon.Select Matthew 23:22

23Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint and anise and cummin and have left the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. These things you ought to have done and not to leave those undone.Select Matthew 23:23

24Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.Select Matthew 23:24

25Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness.Select Matthew 23:25

26Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside may become clean.Select Matthew 23:26

27Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful but within are full of dead men's bones and of all filthiness.Select Matthew 23:27

28So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just: but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.Select Matthew 23:28

29Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that build the sepulchres of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the just,Select Matthew 23:29

30And 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.Select Matthew 23:30

31Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of them that killed the prophets.Select Matthew 23:31

32Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.Select Matthew 23:32

33You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell?Select Matthew 23:33

34Therefore behold I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify: and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city.Select Matthew 23:34

35That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar.Select Matthew 23:35

36Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.Select Matthew 23:36

37Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not?Select Matthew 23:37

38Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate.Select Matthew 23:38

39For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.Select Matthew 23:39