Matthew 23

Matthew 23:2

Saying, The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:

The Scribes and Pharisees, which are the teachers and expounders of the law of God, however they set false glosses upon many precepts thereof, and corrupt it with their own traditions, yet they do out of God’s law shew you how ye ought to live, what sins ye ought to avoid, what good duties ye ought to perform.

Matthew 23:3

All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

Their counsels and doctrines carry in them much shew of holiness and austerity, but their practices are full of looseness and iniquity: whatsoever therefore they enjoin you out of the law of God, that observe, and do; but follow not the examples of their actions, for they say well, and do evil.

Matthew 23:4

For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

They do, in their many and strict traditions, impose heavy charges of busy and troublesome observations upon the people; but they themselves will be sure to ease their own shoulders, and take the freedom of a lawless kind of licentiousness.

Matthew 23:5

But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments.

They make great ostentation of the outward signs of holiness; enlarging those parchment-guards, which they wear about them, as containing the parcels and monuments of God’s law; that they may be noted for great professors of sanctity.

Matthew 23:8

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.

But do not ye arrogate to yourselves any such power or title, as may derogate from the absolute authority of him who is the Word of the Father: do not ye take upon you to deliver any doctrine, as of your own head, but only that which ye shall receive from your Heavenly Master: Christ is your Father and Master, to teach and command; ye are brethren, to join together in observance and obedience. So also verses 9 and 10.

Matthew 23:13

But woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for, whereas, by your office and profession, ye should by the key of knowledge open the kingdom of heaven unto men; ye do, contrarily, defraud the people of the true understanding of God’s law: and, by that means, do, as it were, shut the gates of heaven against both them and yourselves: your false glosses and vicious practices exclude you; and, by the impossibility of observing your many vain traditions, ye do, in your judgment, exclude others: and, as for matter of faith, ye do neither believe in me, the true Saviour, yourselves: neither suffer others, that would gladly embrace the truth of my Gospel, to cleave unto me.

Matthew 23:15

For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

Ye leave no means unattempted, ye spare no pains nor cost, to win a Gentile, to your Jewish religion: and, when ye have drawn him to you, ye do so foully corrupt him, that he is a much worse Jew than he was a Gentile; and ye do more damn him, by a sacrilegious pretence of religion, than he did before damn himself, by a heathenish civility.

Matthew 23:16

Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which lead God’s people into gross and foul errors, by your false and absurd expositions; while ye teach, that the gold of the temple is more holy than the temple itself: and, therefore, that if a man swear by the temple, the oath binds not; but if he swear by the gold of the temple, now he is bound to perform it! So verse 18.

Matthew 23:20

Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.

Whatsoever the forms of your swearing be, it is God only, that is and must be sworn by; and the creatures are only mentioned, as in relation to their Maker: whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, swears by that, which is sacrificed upon it; and by that God, to whom that altar, and that sacrifice, is consecrated and offered. So also verses 21, 22.

Matthew 23:23

Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tythe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are curious and scrupulous in performing small and trifling matters; but are careless and unconscionable, in the main points of God’s Law: if it be for the tythe of a few worthless herbs or seeds, ye will rather overrun the precept of God; but the great duties of justice in your decisions of mercy to the helpless, of fidelity and uprightness of carriage towards men, these are slightly passed over by you: those petty observations, being that they are prescribed, do challenge their due place; but so, that the greater and more important duties ought first and chiefly to be regarded.

Matthew 23:25

For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Ye are all for the outside; only caring to appear fair and glorious, without all regard to inward sincerity: as if a man should be curious in washing the outside of his cup or platter; never caring whether it be clean within: thus do ye, being externally holy, but inwardly full of extortion and excess.

Matthew 23:26

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

Thou blind and hypocritical Pharisee; do thou by thyself, as any wise and cleanly man would do by his cup or platter: care first and chiefly, that the inside be clean and bright; that so, if thou wilt, it may be scoured on both sides: thy own safety calls thee to the respect of the inside; in the care of the outside, thou shalt only regard the eyes of others.

Matthew 23:29

Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous.

Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye profess much honour to the memory of the holy prophets, and can be content to beautify their tombs, as if ye were conscionable observers of that, which they spake and wrote in the name of the Lord.

Matthew 23:31

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

In that ye are so busy in garnishing the tombs of the prophets, slain by your progenitors, ye proclaim yourselves to be

Matthew 23:32

Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

But herein ye do too well approve yourselves the sons of those wicked parents, in that ye imitate them in their bloody practices; persecuting and killing the righteous and innocent, now, as they did in their times before you; so as, what they wanted of cruelty, is fully made up by you.

Matthew 23:35

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

That, since ye succeed in the bloody cruelty of your predecessors, ye may also inherit their judgments; and may make yourselves liable to the punishment of all the innocent blood, that hath been shed by them, even from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Johaiada or Barachias, whom your progenitors cruelly slew in the court of the temple, betwixt the entering in thereof and the altar.

Matthew 23:37

How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

How oft, and how earnestly, have I offered unto thee the means of thy salvation, and tendered unto thee my gracious protection, if thou wouldest have approved thyself capable thereof! and thou hast wilfully cast off and disregarded all my merciful proffers made unto thee.

Matthew 23:38

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

Behold, your temple, your city, your country, shall be, by reason of your sins, given over to utter spoil and desolation.

Matthew 23:39

For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

For I say unto you, hitherto I have lovingly and familiarly conversed amongst you, as a Gracious Redeemer, inviting you to your conversion: but now, since ye have despised my mercy, I will depart from you; and ye shall no more see me, till you shall be forced to magnify me in the terror of my judgment, and in the glory of my majestical appearance.