Matthew 23:13-28 - Jesus Condemns Their Hypocrisy
13 But alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you eat up the houses of widows, and for a pretext make long prayers. For this reason, you shall receive the greater condemnation.
14 Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you close the kingdom of heaven in the face of men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you suffer those who are entering, to go in.
15 Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make him twofold more a child of hell than yourselves.
16 Alas for you, blind guides! who say, Whoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, becomes a debtor. 17 Fools and blind! for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 And, Whoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gift that is on it, becomes a debtor. 19 Fools and blind! for which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20 Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears by it, and by all that is on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him that dwells in it. 22 And he that swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him that sits upon it.
23 Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, its justice, its mercy, and its faithfulness. These you ought to have done, and those you ought not to have neglected. 24 Blind guides! who strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel.
25 Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and the plate; but within they are full of rapine and excess. 26 Blind Pharisee! first make clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside of them also may be clean.
27 Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitened sepulchers, which without appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 So also you outwardly appear to men to be just, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.