Add parallel Print Page Options

So you must obey everything that they teach you. But you should not do the same things that they do. They tell you what the Law of Moses teaches. But then they themselves do not obey it. The rules that they give you are difficult to obey. Their rules are like heavy luggage, which they make you carry. But they themselves will not help you to carry that luggage. They will not agree to use even one finger to help you.[a]

The Pharisees do things only so that people will see them. They wear little boxes with words from the Bible in them, but they make them really big. They also make the tassels on their clothes very long.[b]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 23:4 The teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees taught extra rules to the Laws of Moses. This made it more difficult for people to obey all the Laws.
  2. 23:5 These little boxes were called phylacteries. A Jewish man would tie one to his head or to his arm. There was some paper with words from the Bible in the box. They wore the phylacteries and the tassels for other people to see. They wanted people to think that they really loved God.