ACV - Matthew - 23

23:1  Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying,

23:2  The scholars and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat.

23:3  All things therefore, however many they may tell you to observe, observe and do, but do not ye according to their works, for they say, and do not.

23:4  For they bind heavy burdens and difficult to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they do not want to move them with their finger.

23:5  But all their works they do in order to be seen by men. And they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the hems of their garments.

23:6  And they love the chief place at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

23:7  and the greetings in the marketplaces, and to be designated by men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

23:8  But be ye not designated Rabbi, for one is your leader, the Christ, and ye are all brothers.

23:9  And do not designate a father of you upon the earth, for one is your Father, he in the heavens.

23:10  And be ye not designated leaders, for one is your leader, the Christ.

23:11  But the greater of you will be your helper.

23:12  And he who will exalt himself will be made low, and he who will make himself low will be exalted.

23:13  Woe to you, scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye close up the kingdom of the heavens ahead of men. For ye enter not in, nor do ye allow those who are entering to enter in.

23:14  But woe to you, scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye devour widows' houses, and praying long in pretence. Because of this ye will receive greater condemnation.

23:15  Woe to you, scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye encompass the sea and the land to make one proselyte, and when it happens, ye make him twice more a son of hell than yourselves.

23:16  Woe to you, ye blind guides, who say, Whoever may swear by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever may swear by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.

23:17  Ye foolish and blind men, for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

23:18  And, Whoever may swear by the altar, it is nothing, but whoever may swear by the gift upon it, he is obligated.

23:19  Ye foolish and blind men, for which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

23:20  He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by all things on it.

23:21  And he who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who dwells in it.

23:22  And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits upon it.

23:23  Woe to you, scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye tithe the mint and the anise and the cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law-justice and mercy and faith. These things must be done, and not neglecting those things.

23:24  Ye blind guides, who strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel.

23:25  Woe to you, scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside they are full of plunder and unrighteousness.

23:26  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, so that the outside of them may also become clean.

23:27  Woe to you, scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

23:28  In this way also, ye indeed outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside ye are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

23:29  Woe to you, scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and adorn the sepulchers of the righteous,

23:30  and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

23:31  So then ye testify to yourselves that ye are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

23:32  Then fill ye up the measure of your fathers.

23:33  Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how will ye escape from the damnation of hell?

23:34  Because of this, behold, I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scholars. And some of them ye will kill and crucify, and some of them ye will scourge in your synagogues, and will persecute from city to city,

23:35  so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

23:36  Truly I say to you, that all these things will come upon this generation.

23:37  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who have been sent to her. How often I wanted to gathered thy children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and ye would not.

23:38  Behold, your house is left to you desolate.

23:39  For I say to you, ye will, no, not see me henceforth, until ye say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.