Open English Translation MAT Chapter 23

23 Then Yeshua spoke to the crowds and to his followers, 2 “The religious teachers and the Pharisees party claim the authority of Moses. 3 Because of that, do everything they tell you to do and obey all the commandments they tell you to obey. However, don’t follow what they do, because they’re only good at telling and not at doing. 4 They package up heavy and unbearable loads and place them across the shoulders of the people, while they themselves won’t even more their little fingers. 5 [ref]Everything that they do do, is only done to be a public display in front of the people, so they have big prayer boxes and fancy robes. 6 They love the best place at dinners and the best seats in the meeting halls 7 and being greeted in the marketplaces and to be addressed as ‘My great one’. 8 But don’t let anyone call you ‘My great one’, because you only have one leader and you are all brothers and sisters, 9 and don’t let anyone call you ‘Father’ on earth, because you all only have one heavenly father. 10 Don’t let anyone call you their mentor, because you all have only one teacher and that’s the messiah. 11 [ref]The most important person will be everyone’s servant 12 [ref]and anyone who praises themself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles themself will be praised.

13 “You religious teachers and Pharisees are hypocrites and will have a bad end because you’re actually keeping people away from the kingdom of the heavens—you don’t enter yourselves and nor do you allow others to enter.

14 ◘ 15 “You religious teachers and Pharisees are hypocrites and will have a bad end because you’d travel all the way around the world to make one convert, and then you’d make him twice the son of hell that you are yourselves.

16 “You blind guides will have a bad end. You say that if anyone makes an oath on the temple it’s worthless, but if they make an oath on the gold in the temple then they have to honour it. 17 You are both stupid and blind, because which is greater: the gold, or the temple which makes the gold valuable? 18 And you say that anyone who makes an oath on the altar it’s worthless, but anyone who makes an oath on the gift on the altar has to honour it. 19 You are both stupid and blind, because which is greater: the gift, or the altar which makes the gift valuable? 20 Anyone who makes an oath on the altar, is bound by both the altar and the things on it. 21 Anyone who makes an oath on the temple, is bound by both the temple and God who lives in it. 22 [ref]And anyone who makes an oath on heaven, is bound by both God’s throne and the one who’s sitting on it.

23 [ref]“You religious teachers and Pharisees are hypocrites and will have a bad end because you give a tenth of your herbs but you ignore the weightier parts of the commandments like justice and mercy and faith. Those are the things that should have been observed and not left out. 24 You blind guides. You try to strain out a gnat and end up swallowing a camel.

25 “You religious teachers and Pharisees are hypocrites and will have a bad end because you scrub the outside of your cups and bowls but the inside is still full of greed and selfishness. 26 You blind Pharisees. First you should clean the inside of your cup and dish so that the outside would also become clean.

27 [ref]“You religious teachers and Pharisees are hypocrites and will have a bad end because you are like whitewashed tombs. On the outside they might look nice, but the inside is full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of impurities, 28 so even though the people might think you’re godly on the outside, actually your insides are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29 “You religious teachers and Pharisees are hypocrites and will have a bad end because you rebuild the prophets’ tombs and adorn the tombs of godly people, 30 and you tell yourselves, ‘If we’d lived back in those days, we wouldn’t have had any part in killing the prophets.’ 31 By saying that, you’re admitting to yourselves that you’re the descendants of the ones who killed the prophets— 32 actually you’re just the same as your ancestors. 33 [ref]Bunch of snakes, brood of vipers, how do you think that you’ll escape the judgement of hell? 34 Because of that, listen, I’m now sending out more prophets and wise preachers and teachers to you all. You’ll kill off some of them and have others executed on stakes. You’ll flog some of them in your meeting halls, and you’ll persecute others from city to city, 35 [ref]so that the judgement for all the deaths of godly people around the world will fall on you all. This includes the blood of the innocent Abel all the way through the centuries to the blood of Zechariah (son of Berekiah) who you all murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Yes, I can assure you that all these things will happen to this generation.

37 “Yerusalem, Yerusalem, the city that murders the prophets and throws rocks to kill those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your inhabitants like a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you didn’t want that. 38 [ref]So listen, now your temple will be left uninhabited, 39 [ref]because I’m telling you that you certainly won’t see me again until you can say, ‘The person coming in the name of the master has been blessed.’ ”