MattatYahu (Matthew) — 23
Seven Woes to the Scribes and Pharisees
1 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤔𐤏_YAHUSHA said to the crowds and to his Talmidym,
2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Musha' seat,
3 Practice and obey whatever they tell you, but do not follow their examples. For they preach, but do not practice.
4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
5 “Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels.
6 And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues.
7 They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi (teacher).’
8 “Do not let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and teacher, all of you are equal as brothers and sisters.
9 And do not address anyone here on Arath as ‘ABBA,’ for only 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH in Shamaym is your spiritual ABBA.
10 And do not let anyone call you ‘MASTER,’ for you have only one Master, Ha'Mashyach.
11 The greatest among you must be a servant.
12 But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
13 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Shamaym in people’s faces. You will not go in yourselves, and you do not let others enter either.
14 What sorrow awaits you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour the houses of widows, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
15 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of destruction you yourselves are!
16 “Blind guides! What sorrow awaits you! For you say that it means nothing to swear ‘by 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH’s Temple,’ but that it is binding to swear ‘by the gold in the Temple.’
17 Blind fools! Which is more important, the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred?
18 And you say that to swear ‘by the altar’ is not binding, but to swear ‘by the gifts on the altar’ is binding.
19 Fools and blind! For which is more important, the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
20 When you swear ‘by the altar,’ you are swearing by it and by everything on it.
21 And when you swear ‘by the Temple,’ you are swearing by it and by 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, who lives in it.
22 And when you swear ‘by Shamaym,’ you are swearing by the throne of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH and by 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH who sits on the throne.
23 What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law, justice, mercy, and Amunah. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.
24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the Nabyms and decorate the monuments of the righteous,
30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the Nabyms.’
31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the Nabyms.
32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to everlasting destruction?
34 Therefore I send you Nabyms and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and hang in dead stake, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,
35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on Arath, from the blood of righteous Ábál to the blood of Zacharyahu the son of Barachyahu, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Lament over Yahushalam
37 “O Yahushalam, Yahushalam the city that kills the Nabyms and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
38 See, your house is left to you desolate.
39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Baraked is he who comes in the Name of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH.’”