Twentieth_Century(i)
13 But alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You turn the key of the Kingdom of Heaven in men's faces. For you do not go in yourselves, nor yet allow those who try to go in to do so.
14 Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You destroy widow's houses, even while pretending to make long prayers; therefore you shall receive greater condemnation.
15 Alas for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You scour land and sea to make a single convert, and, when he is gained, you make him twice as deserving of the Pit as you are yourselves.
16 Alas for you, you blind guides! You say 'if any answer by the Temple, his oath counts for nothing; but, if any one swears by the gold of the Temple, his oath is binding him'!
17 Fools that you are and blind! Which is the more important? The gold? Or the Temple which has given sacredness to the gold?
18 You say, too, 'If any one swears by the altar, his oath counts for nothing, but, if any one swears by the offering placed on it, his oath is binding on him'!
19 Blind indeed! Which is the more important? The offering? or the altar which gives sacredness to the offering?
20 Therefore a man, swearing by the altar, swears by it and by all that is on it,
21 and a man, swearing by the Temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it,
22 while a man, swearing by Heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits upon it.
23 Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You pay tithes on mint, fennel, and caraway seed, and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law--justice, mercy, and good faith. These last you ought to have put into practice, without neglecting the first.
24 You blind guides, to strain out a gnat and to swallow a camel!
25 Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are filled with the results of greed and self-indulgence.
26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside may become clean as well.
27 Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed look fair outside, while inside they are filled with dead men's bones and all kinds of filth.
28 It is the same with you. Outwardly, and to others, you have the look of religious men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and sin.
29 Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You build the tombs of the Prophets, and decorate the monuments of religious men,
30 and say 'Had we been living in the days of our ancestors, we should have taken part in their murder of the Prophets!
31 By doing this you are furnishing evidence against yourselves that you are true children of the men who murdered the Prophets.
32 Fill up the measure of your ancestor's guilt.
33 You serpents and brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to the Pit?
34 That is why I send you Prophets, wise men, and Teachers of the Law, some of whom you will crucify and kill, and some of whom you will scourge in your Synagogues, and persecute from town to town;
35 in order that upon your heads may fall every drop of innocent 'blood split on earth,' from the blood of innocent Abel down to that of Zechariah, Barachiah's son, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar.
36 All this, I tell you, will come home to the present generation.