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14 "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer : therefore ye shall receive the crreater damnation.
15 Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye compass sea and laud to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which sav,Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing ; but whoso- ever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor !
17 Te fools and blind ! for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold ?
18 And, whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whoso- ever sweareth by the gift that is upon it he is guilty.
19 Ye foob and blind : for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift ?
20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth there- on.
23 Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hj-pocrites ! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weiirhticr mat-
ters of the law, judgment, mercy, and taith : these ought ye to have done, and not to leave tlie otlier undone.
24 Ye blind guides which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead nie/i's bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly ap- pear righteous "unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the right- eous,
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that "ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the dam- nation of hell ?
AVe have in these verses the charges of our Lord against the Jewish teachers ranged under eight heads. Standing in the midst of the temple, Avith a listening crowd around Him, He publicly denounces the main errors of the Scribes and Pharisees in unsparing terms. Eight times He uses the solemn expression, " woe unto you." Seven times He calls them " hypocrites." Twice He speaks of them as blind guides — twice as " fools and blind" — once as " serpents and a generation of vipers." Let us mark