Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy, as they teach the law but do not follow it themselves, instead seeking to be seen and admired by others. He criticizes their emphasis on minor details of the law while neglecting more important aspects such as judgment, mercy, and faith. Jesus also denounces their outward appearance of righteousness while being inwardly corrupt, and warns them that they will face judgment for their actions. He laments the fact that Jerusalem has rejected the prophets and will now face abandonment and destruction, and that the current generation will be held accountable for the blood of all the just who have been killed.
1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds, and to his disciples 2 saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees have sat down in the chair of Moses 3 Therefore, all things whatsoever that they shall say to you, observe and do. Yet truly, do not choose to act according to their works. For they say, but they do not do 4 For they bind up heavy and unbearable burdens, and they impose them on men’s shoulders. But they are not willing to move them with even a finger of their own 5 Truly, they do all their works so that they may be seen by men. For they enlarge their phylacteries and glorify their hems 6 And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplace, and to be called Master by men 8 But you must not be called Master. For One is your Master, and you are all brothers 9 And do not choose to call anyone on earth your father. For One is your Father, who is in heaven 10 Neither should you be called teachers. For One is your Teacher, the Christ 11 Whoever is greater among you shall be your minister 12 But whoever has exalted himself, shall be humbled. And whoever has humbled himself, shall be exalted 13 So then: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you close the kingdom of heaven before men. For you yourselves do not enter, and those who are entering, you would not permit to enter 14 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you consume the houses of widows, praying long prayers. Because of this, you shall receive the greater judgment 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and by land, in order to make one convert. And when he has been converted, you make him twice the son of Hell that you are yourselves 16 Woe to you, blind guides, who say: ‘Whoever will have sworn by the temple, it is nothing. But whoever will have sworn by the gold of the temple is obligated. 17 You are foolish and blind! For which is greater: the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold 18 And you say: ‘Whoever will have sworn by the altar, it is nothing. But whoever will have sworn by the gift that is on the altar is obligated. 19 How blind you are! 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 will have sworn by the temple, swears by it, and by him who dwells in it 22 And whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits upon it 23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you collect tithes on mint and dill and cumin, but you have abandoned the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, while not omitting the others 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat, while swallowing a camel 25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you clean what is outside the cup and the dish, but on the inside you are full of avarice and impurity 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish, and then what is outside becomes clean 27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed sepulchers, which outwardly appear brilliant to men, yet truly, inside, they are filled with the bones of the dead and with all filth 28 So also, you certainly appear to men outwardly to be just. But inwardly you are filled with hypocrisy and iniquity 29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, who build the sepulchers of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the just 30 And then you say, ‘If we had been there in the days of our fathers, we would not have joined with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 And so you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets 32 Complete, then, the measure of your fathers 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers! How will you escape from the judgment of Hell 34 For this reason, behold, I send to you prophets and wisemen, and scribes. And some of these you will put to death and crucify; and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city 35 so that upon you may fall all the blood of the just, which has been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar 36 Amen I say to you, all these things shall fall upon this generation 37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone those who have been sent to you. How often I have wanted to gather your children together, in the way that a hen gathers her young under her wings. But you were not willing 38 Behold, your house shall be abandoned to you, having been deserted 39 For I say to you, you shall not see me again, until you say: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’