Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. 28 Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, 30 and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’ 31 Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; 32 now fill up what your ancestors measured out! Jesus continues His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees by returning to the contrast between what can be seen outwardly and what is present within. In the preceding verses, He compared them to cups that had been cleaned on the outside while remaining unclean within. He now intensifies t...
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. [But] these you should have done, without neglecting the others. 24 Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.” Jesus continues His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees by exposing a serious disorder in their religious priorities. They carefully tithe even small herbs such as mint, dill, and cumin, yet they neglect what Jesus calls “the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity” (v. 23). The Law of Moses required the people to give a tenth of the produce of the land to God (Leviticus 27:30; Deuteronomy 14:22–23). Later Jewi...