Matthew 23:29
New International Version
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.

New Living Translation
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destroyed.

English Standard Version
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,

Berean Standard Bible
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous.

Berean Literal Bible
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous;

King James Bible
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

New King James Version
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

New American Standard Bible
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,

NASB 1995
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

NASB 1977
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

Legacy Standard Bible
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

Amplified Bible
“Woe to you, [self-righteous] scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets and decorate and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

Christian Standard Bible
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,

American Standard Version
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous,

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, phonies, who build the tombs of The Prophets and adorn the tombs of the righteous!

Contemporary English Version
You Pharisees and teachers are nothing but show-offs, and you're in for trouble! You build monuments for the prophets and decorate the tombs of good people.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; that build the sepulchres of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the just,

English Revised Version
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous,

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"How horrible it will be for you, scribes and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of those who had God's approval.

Good News Translation
"How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You make fine tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of those who lived good lives;

International Standard Version
"How terrible it will be for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous.

Literal Standard Version
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the graves of the prophets, and adorn the tombs of the righteous,

Majority Standard Bible
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous.

New American Bible
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous,

NET Bible
"Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.

New Revised Standard Version
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous,

New Heart English Bible
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous,

Webster's Bible Translation
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,

Weymouth New Testament
"Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you repair the sepulchres of the Prophets and keep in order the tombs of the righteous,

World English Bible
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the tombs of the righteous,

Young's Literal Translation
'Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and adorn the tombs of the righteous,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Woes to Scribes and Pharisees
28In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. 29Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. 30And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’…

Cross References
Matthew 23:27
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of impurity.

Matthew 23:28
In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Matthew 23:30
And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'

Luke 11:47
Woe to you! You build tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers who killed them.


Treasury of Scripture

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,

ye build.

Luke 11:47,48
Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them…

Acts 2:29
Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

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Adorn Alas Bodies Build Buildings Curse Dead Decorate Fair False. Good Graves Housing Hypocrites Law Monuments Ones Order Pharisees Prophets Repair Resting-Places Righteous Scribes Sepulchers Sepulchres Teachers Tombs Wo Woe
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Adorn Alas Bodies Build Buildings Curse Dead Decorate Fair False. Good Graves Housing Hypocrites Law Monuments Ones Order Pharisees Prophets Repair Resting-Places Righteous Scribes Sepulchers Sepulchres Teachers Tombs Wo Woe
Matthew 23
1. Jesus admonishes the people to follow good doctrine, not bad examples
5. His disciples must beware of their ambition.
13. He denounces eight woes against their hypocrisy and blindness,
34. and prophesies of the destruction of Jerusalem.














(29) Ye build the tombs . . .--Four conspicuous monuments of this kind are seen to the present day at the base of the Mount of Olives, in the so-called Valley of Jehoshaphat, the architecture of which, with its mixture of debased Doric and Egyptian, leads archaeologists to assign them to the period of the Herodian dynasty. These may, therefore, well have been the very sepulchres of which our Lord spoke, and to which, it may be, He pointed. They bear at present the names of Zechariah, Absalom, Jehoshaphat, and St. James; but there is no evidence that these were given to them when they were built, and the narratives of earlier travellers vary in reporting them. It may be noticed, however, that of these four names, Zechariah is the only one that belonged to a prophet, and the reference to the death of a martyr-prophet of that name in Matthew 23:35, makes it probable that the name may have been, as it were, suggested by the monument on which the Pharisees were lavishing their wealth and their skill at the very time when they were about to imbrue their hands in the blood of One who was, even in the judgment of many of their own class, both a "prophet" and a "righteous" man.

Garnish.--Better, adorn--as, e.g., with columns, cornices, paintings, or bas-reliefs. Even these acts, natural and legitimate in themselves, were part of the "hypocrisy" or "unreality" of the Pharisees. They did not understand, and therefore could not rightly honour, the life of a prophet or just man. They might have learnt something from the saying of a teacher of their own in the Jerusalem Talmud, that "there is no need to adorn the sepulchres of the righteous, for their words are their monuments." In somewhat of the same strain wrote the Roman historian: "As the faces of men are frail and perishable, so are the works of art that represent their faces; but the form of their character is eternal, and this we can retain in memory, and set forth to others, not by external matter and skill of art, but by our own character and acts" (Tacitus, Agricola, c. 46).

Verses 29-32. - Eighth woe - against hypocritical honour paid to departed worthies (Luke 11:47). Verse 29. - Ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous; or, adorn the monuments of the just. In the last woe Christ had spoken of sepulchres; he speaks of them here again, giving an unexpected view of the seeming honours paid to departed saints. The sumptuous mausoleums and tombs found e.g. round Jerusalem, and bearing the names of celebrated men (such as Zechariah, Absalom, Jehoshaphat), sufficiently attest the practice of the Jews in this matter. But the Pharisees' motives in acting thus were not pure; they were not influenced by respect for the prophets or repentance for national sins, but by pride, hypocrisy, and self-sufficiency. The present was a great age for building; witness Herod's magnificent undertakings; and probably many gorgeous tombs in honour of ancient worthies were now erected or renovated.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Woe
Οὐαὶ (Ouai)
Interjection
Strong's 3759: Woe!, alas!, uttered in grief or denunciation. A primary exclamation of grief; 'woe'.

to you,
ὑμῖν (hymin)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

scribes
γραμματεῖς (grammateis)
Noun - Vocative Masculine Plural
Strong's 1122: From gramma. A writer, i.e. scribe or secretary.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

Pharisees,
Φαρισαῖοι (Pharisaioi)
Noun - Vocative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5330: Of Hebrew origin; a separatist, i.e. Exclusively religious; a Pharisean, i.e. Jewish sectary.

you hypocrites!
ὑποκριταί (hypokritai)
Noun - Vocative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5273: From hupokrinomai; an actor under an assumed character, i.e. a dissembler

You build
οἰκοδομεῖτε (oikodomeite)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 3618: From the same as oikodome; to be a house-builder, i.e. Construct or confirm.

tombs
τάφους (taphous)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5028: A burial-place, sepulcher, tomb, grave. Masculine from thapto; a grave.

for the
τῶν (tōn)
Article - Genitive Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

prophets
προφητῶν (prophētōn)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural
Strong's 4396: From a compound of pro and phemi; a foreteller; by analogy, an inspired speaker; by extension, a poet.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

decorate
κοσμεῖτε (kosmeite)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 2885: To put into order; I decorate, deck, adorn. From kosmos; to put in proper order, i.e. Decorate; specially, to snuff.

the
τὰ (ta)
Article - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

monuments
μνημεῖα (mnēmeia)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3419: A tomb, sepulcher, monument. From mneme; a remembrance, i.e. Cenotaph.

of the
τῶν (tōn)
Article - Genitive Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

righteous.
δικαίων (dikaiōn)
Adjective - Genitive Masculine Plural
Strong's 1342: From dike; equitable; by implication, innocent, holy.


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NT Gospels: Matthew 23:29 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites! (Matt. Mat Mt)
Matthew 23:28
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