Matthew 23: Verse-by-Verse Commentary (with Videos)

¹Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples:

²“The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.

³So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

⁴They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

⁵All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.

⁶They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues,

⁷the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed.

⁸But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.

⁹And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.

¹⁰Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ.

¹¹The greatest among you shall be your servant.

¹²For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

¹³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

¹⁴(This translation does not include this verse.)

¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

¹⁶Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’

¹⁷You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred?

¹⁸And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’

¹⁹You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes it sacred?

²⁰So then, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

²¹And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it.

²²And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the One who sits on it.

²³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

²⁴You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

²⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

²⁶Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside may become clean as well.

²⁷Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.

²⁸In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

²⁹Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous.

³⁰And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

³¹So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.

³²Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers.

³³You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell?

³⁴Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.

³⁵And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

³⁶Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

³⁷O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

³⁸Look, your house is left to you desolate.

³⁹For I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”