Scripture Readings

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Matthew 23:29-39 (Gospel)

29
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,
30
and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
31
Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
32
Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt.
33
Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
34
Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
35
that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
36
Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
38
See! Your house is left to you desolate;
39
for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’”