13 [a]Woe therefore be unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, [b]hypocrites, because ye shut up the kingdom of heaven before men: for ye yourselves go not in, neither suffer ye them that would [c]enter, to come in.

14 (A)[d]Woe be unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for ye devour widows’ houses, even [e]under a color of long prayers: wherefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

15 Woe be unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for ye compass sea and [f]land to make one of your profession: and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell, than you yourselves.

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 23:13 Hypocrites can abide none to be better than themselves.
  2. Matthew 23:13 Christ when he reproveth any man sharply, uses this word, to give us to understand that there is nothing more detestable than hypocrisy and falsehood in religion.
  3. Matthew 23:13 Which are even at the door.
  4. Matthew 23:14 It is a common thing among hypocrites, to abuse the pretence of zeal to covetousness and extortion.
  5. Matthew 23:14 Word for word, under a color of long praying. And this word, Even, noteth a double naughtiness in them: the one, that they devoured widows’ goods: the other, that they did it under a color of godliness.
  6. Matthew 23:15 The dry part: now that part of that earth is called dry, which the Lord hath given us to dwell upon.

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