Matthew 9:13

9:13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ ¹  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 23:13

23:13 “But woe to you, experts in the law ²  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! ³  You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! ⁴  For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.

Matthew 23:15

23:15 “Woe to you, experts in the law ⁵  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You cross land and sea to make one convert, ⁶  and when you get one, ⁷  you make him twice as much a child of hell ⁸  as yourselves!

Matthew 23:25

23:25 “Woe to you, experts in the law ⁹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

Matthew 23:27

23:27 “Woe to you, experts in the law ¹⁰  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. ¹¹ 

Matthew 23:37

Judgment on Israel

23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ¹²  you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! ¹³  How often I have longed ¹⁴  to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but ¹⁵  you would have none of it! ¹⁶ 

[9:13]  ¹ sn A quotation from Hos 6:6 (see also Matt 12:7).

[23:13]  ² tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:13]  ³ tn Grk “Woe to you…because you…” The causal particle ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated here for rhetorical effect (and so throughout this chapter).

[23:13]  ⁴ tn Grk “because you are closing the kingdom of heaven before people.”

[23:15]  ³ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:15]  ⁴ tn Or “one proselyte.”

[23:15]  ⁵ tn Grk “when he becomes [one].”

[23:15]  ⁶ tn Grk “a son of Gehenna.” Expressions constructed with υἱός (Juios) followed by a genitive of class or kind denote a person belonging to the class or kind specified by the following genitive (L&N 9.4). Thus the phrase here means “a person who belongs to hell.”

[23:25]  ⁴ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:27]  ⁵ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:27]  ⁶ sn This was an idiom for hypocrisy – just as the wall was painted on the outside but something different on the inside, so this person was not what he appeared or pretended to be (for discussion of a similar metaphor, see L&N 88.234; BDAG 1010 s.v. τοῖχος). See Deut 28:22; Ezek 13:10-16; Acts 23:3.

[23:37]  ⁶ sn The double use of the city’s name betrays intense emotion.

[23:37]  ⁷ tn Although the opening address (“Jerusalem, Jerusalem”) is direct (second person), the remainder of this sentence in the Greek text is third person (“who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her”). The following sentences then revert to second person (“your… you”), so to keep all this consistent in English, the third person pronouns in the present verse were translated as second person (“you who kill… sent to you”).

[23:37]  ⁸ sn How often I have longed to gather your children. Jesus, like a lamenting prophet, speaks for God here, who longed to care tenderly for Israel and protect her.

[23:37]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[23:37]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “you were not willing.”