# Matthew 23

> Lumin Translation

Source: https://www.lumin.faith/read/matthew/23

Lumin’s own translation, drafted with AI from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, checked verse by verse against them, and approved by Lumin. Brackets mark verses not found in the earliest manuscripts.

How it was made: https://www.lumin.faith/lumin-translation.md

1. Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples.
2. He said, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.
3. So do and keep whatever they tell you, but do not do what they do, for they talk but do not act.
4. They tie up heavy burdens that are hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5. Everything they do is done to be seen by others. They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long.
6. They love the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues,
7. and greetings in the marketplaces, and being called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
8. But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters.
9. And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, the one in heaven.
10. Do not be called instructors either, because you have one instructor, the Messiah.
11. The greatest among you will be your servant.
12. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You do not go in yourselves, and you do not let those who are trying to enter go in.
14. [Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You devour widows’ houses and for show make long prayers. Because of this you will receive a greater condemnation.]
15. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to make a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
16. Woe 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.’
17. You blind fools! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that made the gold sacred?
18. And 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.’
19. You blind people! Which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
20. So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
21. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.
22. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the one who sits on it.
23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, but you have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These you should have practiced without neglecting the others.
24. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may become clean too.
27. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead people’s bones and every kind of uncleanness.
28. In the same way, on the outside you appear righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,
30. and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
31. So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
32. Go ahead, then, and fill up the measure of your ancestors!
33. You snakes, you brood of vipers! How will you escape being sentenced to hell?
34. For this reason I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town,
35. so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
36. Truly I tell you, all these things will come on this generation.
37. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing!
38. Look, your house is left to you desolate.
39. For I tell you, you will not see me again from now on until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

## Nearby chapters

[Matthew 22](https://www.lumin.faith/read/matthew/22.md)
[Matthew 24](https://www.lumin.faith/read/matthew/24.md)

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