Luke 11:39–52

³⁹The Lord said to him, “You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are full of greed and evil. ⁴⁰You foolish people! The same one who made what is outside also made what is inside. ⁴¹So give what is in your dishes to the poor, and then you will be fully clean. ⁴²How terrible for you Pharisees! You give God one-tenth of even your mint, your rue, and every other plant in your garden. But you fail to be fair to others and to love God. These are the things you should do while continuing to do those other things. ⁴³How terrible for you Pharisees, because you love to have the most important seats in the synagogues, and you love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴How terrible for you, because you are like hidden graves, which people walk on without knowing.”

Jesus Talks to Experts on the Law

⁴⁵One of the experts on the law said to Jesus, “Teacher, when you say these things, you are insulting us, too.”

⁴⁶Jesus answered, “How terrible for you, you experts on the law! You make strict rules that are very hard for people to obey, but you yourselves don’t even try to follow those rules. ⁴⁷How terrible for you, because you build tombs for the prophets whom your ancestors killed! ⁴⁸And now you show that you approve of what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets, and you build tombs for them! ⁴⁹This is why in his wisdom God said, ‘I will send prophets and apostles to them. They will kill some, and they will treat others cruelly.’ ⁵⁰So you who live now will be punished for the deaths of all the prophets who were killed since the beginning of the world—⁵¹from the killing of Abel to the killing of Zechariah, ⁿ who died between the altar and the Temple. Yes, I tell you that you who are alive now will be punished for them all.

⁵²“How terrible for you, you experts on the law. You have taken away the key to learning about God. You yourselves would not learn, and you stopped others from learning, too.”