Matthew 23:25-33

JMNT(i) 25 "How tragic is the fate in you people – scribes (scholars, etc.) and Pharisees: overly-critical interpreters [see 6:2, above]! For you folks are habitually cleansing the outside of the cup and of the fine side dish – yet inside they continuously contain a full load from snatching (plunder; pillage; = the fruits of forceful greed) and lack of strength (or: self-indulgence). 26 "Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the fine side dish – so that its outside can also come to be (be birthed) clean! 27 "Tragic will be the fate of you Law scholars and Pharisees – you who recite a front of your own opinions and answers (or: overly-critical folks; [see 6:2, above])! [It will be] because you continue closely resembling whitewashed (i.e., smeared or plastered with lime) tombs (sepulchers; grave sites), which indeed, from outside, continue being made to appear in the prime of beauty, for a time – yet inside they contain a full load of bones of dead folks, as well as every uncleanness. 28 "In this way you, yourselves, also on the one hand are continually made to outwardly appear to people [to be] just (fair, righteous, in right relationships, and in accord with the way pointed out) – yet inside you continuously exist being men glutted and distended, full of opinionated answers (or: perverse detail-oriented scholarship; hyper-criticism and judgmentalism; well-sifted wicked interpretations) and lawlessness (= practice which is contrary to the Law [Torah]). 29 "It will be a tragic fate for you, theologians (scholars of the Law) and Pharisees [who are also] overly judging and critical [see 6:2, above]. Because, [you see], you are repeatedly building the tombs (sepulchers) of the prophets, and are constantly adorning and decorating the memorial grave monuments of just and rightwised folks, 30 "and you are habitually saying, 'If we had been existing in the days of our fathers (= ancestors), we would not have been participants (partners; ones who shared in common and took part) in [spilling] the blood of the prophets.' 31 "As a result, you are continually giving evidence in yourselves (testifying to and for yourselves) that you exist being sons of those that were murdering the prophets, 32 "And so, you, yourselves... Fill full the measure of your fathers! 33 "[You] snakes! [You] offspring (brood) of vipers (poisonous serpents)! How can you flee and escape from the judging which has the qualities, character and significance of the valley of Hinnom (= the sentence to the city dump [Greek: Gehenna]; the deciding which pertains to the waste depository of the city)?