Matthew 23:13-22 (Gospel)
- 13
- But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
- 14
- Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
- 15
- Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
- 16
- Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’
- 17
- Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
- 18
- And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’
- 19
- Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
- 20
- Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.
- 21
- He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.
- 22
- And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.