Matthew 23:15-28

Living_Oracles(i) 15 Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees! hypocrites! because you traverse sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is gained, you make him a son of hell doubly more than yourselves. 16 Alas for you, blind guides, who say, To swear by the temple binds not, but swear by the gold of the temple is binding. 17 Foolish and blind! which is more sacred, the gold, or the temple that consecrates the gold? 18 and, to swear by the altar, binds not, but to swear by the offering that is upon it is binding. 19 Foolish and blind! which is more sacred, the offering, or the altar that consecrates the offering? 20 Whoever, therefore, swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears 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 on it. 23 Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees! hypocrites! because you pay the tithe of mint, dill, and cummin, and omit the more important articles of the law, justice, humanity, and fidelity. These you ought to have practiced without omitting those. 24 Blind guides! you are skimming off the gnat, and swallowing the camel. 25 Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees! hypocrites! because you cleanse the outside of those cups and platters, which within are laid with rapine and iniquity. 26 Blind Pharisee! begin with cleansing the inside of the cup, and of the platter, if you would make even the outside clean. 27 Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees! hypocrites! because you resemble whitened sepulchers, which without indeed, are beautiful, but within are full of corruption, and of dead men's bones. 28 Thus you outwardly appear righteous to men; but are inwardly fraught with subtlety and injustice.