Matthew Chapter 23 of 28 about 4 min read

Matthew 23

What happens in this chapter

Chapter summary coming soon.

Verse 1. Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples:

Verse 2. “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.

Verse 3. So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

Verse 4. They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

Verse 5. All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.

Verse 6. They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues,

Verse 7. the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed.

Verse 8. But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.

Verse 9. And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.

Verse 10. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ.

Verse 11. The greatest among you shall be your servant.

Verse 12. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Verse 13. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

Verse 14. nan

Verse 15. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

Verse 16. Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’

Verse 17. You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred?

Verse 18. And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’

Verse 19. You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes it sacred?

Verse 20. So then, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

Verse 21. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it.

Verse 22. And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the One who sits on it.

Verse 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

Verse 24. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Verse 25. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

Verse 26. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside may become clean as well.

Verse 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.

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

Verse 29. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous.

Verse 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.’

Verse 31. So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.

Verse 32. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers.

Verse 33. You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell?

Verse 34. Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.

Verse 35. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Verse 36. Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Verse 37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

Verse 38. Look, your house is left to you desolate.

Verse 39. For I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”