Matthew 23:25-39 ▼

25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you purify the exterior of the cup and the plate, and within they are full of extortion and impurity.

26 Ye blind Pharisee, first purify the inside of the cup, in order that its outside may be clean.

27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you are like whitened sepulchers, which are beautiful indeed externally, but within they are full of the hones of the dead people, and every impurity.

28 So you also appear unto the people indeed righteous, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets, and ornament the sepulchers of the righteous,

30 and you say, If we were in the days of our fathers we would not have been their fellow-partakers in the blood of the prophets.

31 So you witness to yourselves, that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.

32 And you fill up the measure of your fathers.

33 Ye serpents, generations of vipers, how can you escape from the judgment of hell?

34 Therefore I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: you will kill and crucify some of them; and will scourge some of them in your synagogues, and will persecute them from city to city;

35 in order that all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zachariah the son of the blessed, whom they slew between the temple and the altar, may come upon you.

36 Truly I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation.

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that have been sent unto thee! how frequently did I wish to gather together thy children, in the manner in which a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but ye were not willing!

38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

39 For I say unto you, that ye can see me no more until you can say; Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.