1 Then Jesus addressed the crowds and his disciples,
2 saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
3 So everything they tell you to keep, keep and do; but do not act as they act, for they talk but do not do.
4 They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and place them on people's shoulders, but they themselves refuse to budge them with their own finger.
5 Everything they do is done to be noticed by people: they widen their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments.
6 They love the place of honor at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues,
7 and being greeted in the marketplaces and having people call them 'Rabbi, Rabbi.'
8 But as for you, do not be called 'Rabbi,' for one is your Instructor, the Christ, and you are all brothers.
9 And do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your Father, the one in heaven.
10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for one is your Instructor, the Christ.
11 The greatest among you is to be your servant.
12 Whoever lifts himself up will be brought low, and whoever brings himself low will be lifted up.
13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock the kingdom of heaven in people's faces; you do not go in yourselves, and those who are trying to go in you do not permit to enter.
14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you eat up widows' houses and make long prayers for show; because of this you will receive greater condemnation.
15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you go around sea and dry land to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him a son of hell twice as much as you are.
16 "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.'
17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold holy?
18 And, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on top of it, he is obligated.'
19 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift holy?
20 So the one who swears by the altar swears by it and by all that is on it.
21 And the one who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who lives in it.
22 And the one who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one seated on it.
23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you give a tenth of mint and dill and cumin, and you have neglected the weightier parts of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. These you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others.
24 Blind guides, straining out the gnat but gulping down the camel!
25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of plunder and lack of self-control.
26 Blind Pharisee! First make clean the inside of the cup and the dish, so that their outside may become clean as well.
27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you resemble tombs that have been whitewashed, which look attractive on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of impurity.
28 In the same way you too look righteous to people on the outside, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the memorials of the righteous,
30 and you say, 'If we had been alive in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
31 So you bear witness against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.
32 And you, fill up the measure of your fathers!
33 Snakes, offspring of vipers! How are you to escape the condemnation of hell?
34 For this reason, look, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and hunt from town to town,
35 so that upon you will come all the righteous blood poured out on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
36 Truly I say to you, all of this will come upon this generation.
37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you! How many times I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
38 Look, your house is being left to you desolate.
39 For I say to you, from now on you will certainly not see me until you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"