¹Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples,

²Saying: On Moses' seat sat down the scribes and the Pharisees;

³Therefore all things, as much as they shall tell you to keep, perform and observe; but after their works do not perform, for they speak and do not act.

⁴Now they tie up burdens heavy and hard to bear and lay them on the shoulders of men; but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

⁵Now all their deeds they do in order to be seen by the men; for they broaden their phylacteries and enlarge the tassels of their garments.

⁶Now they cherish the chief place at the banquets and the first seats in the synagogues,

⁷And the greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called Rabbi by the men.

⁸But you yourselves do not be called Rabbi; for one is your Teacher, the Anointed One, and you yourselves are all now brothers.

⁹And may you call no one your father on the earth; for one is your Father, the one in heaven.

¹⁰Neither may you be called instructors, since one is your instructor, the Anointed One.

¹¹And the greatest among you will be your servant.

¹²Then he who will exalt himself will be humbled, and whoever will humble himself will be lifted up.

¹³But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, stage-actors! For you shut up the kingdom of the heavens before the men; for you yourselves neither enter, nor even allow those who enter to go in.

¹⁴For woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, stage-actors! You devour the houses of the widows and as a pretext long praying; through this you will receive more excessive judgment.

¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, stage-actors! For you traverse the sea and the dry land to make one convert, and when he may become so, you make him a son of Valley of Hinnom twofold more than yourselves.

¹⁶Woe to you, blind guides, you who are saying: Whoever swears by the temple, it is no thing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound.

¹⁷Foolish and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple which is setting apart the gold?

¹⁸And you say: Whoever shall swear by the altar, it is no thing; but whoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it is bound.

¹⁹Foolish and blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar which is setting apart the gift?

²⁰Therefore the one having sworn by the altar swears by it and by all things that are upon it,

²¹And the one who swore by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it,

²²And the one who swore by the heaven swears by the throne of God and by the One who sits upon it.

²³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, stage-actors! For you pay tithes of the mint and the dill and the cumin, and you have neglected the weightier matters of the law, the justice and the compassion and the faithfulness; now these it was necessary to do, those not to be leaving aside.

²⁴Blind guides! You who are straining out the gnat, but swallowing the camel!

²⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, stage-actors! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inwardly they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

²⁶Blind Pharisee! Cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the dish, that its outside also may become clean.

²⁷Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, stage-actors! For you resemble whitewashed tombs which outside indeed appear beautiful, but inside they are full of bones of the dead and of all impurity.

²⁸Thus also you yourselves outside indeed appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

²⁹Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, stage-actors! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

³⁰And you say: If we were in the days of our fathers, we would not then have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets;

³¹Thus you bear witness to yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets;

³²And you yourselves fill up the measure of your fathers.

³³Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How shall you escape from the sentence of Valley of Hinnom?

³⁴Because of this, behold, I myself send to you prophets and wise men and scribes; and some of them you will kill and will crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and will persecute from town to town;

³⁵So that upon you may come all the righteous blood being poured out upon the land, from the righteous blood of Abel until the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

³⁶Amen I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

³⁷Jerusalem, you who are killing the prophets and stoning those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather together your children, in which way a hen gathers together her chicks under the wings, and you were not willing?

³⁸Behold, your house is left to you desolate!

³⁹For I say to you, you will never see Me from now until you say: Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.