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15 It will be very bad for you, teachers of God's Law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites! You travel far across land and sea. You do this to make one person believe what you believe. Then, when he does believe your ideas, he becomes worse than you are. He shows that he belongs to hell even more than you do.

16 It will be very bad for you, teachers. You cannot see what is true, but you show people which way to go.[a] You say to people, “You may make a promise by the name of the temple. Then it is not a serious promise. You do not have to do it. But you may also make a promise by the gold things in the temple. Then it is a serious promise, and you must do it.” 17 This shows that you are fools. You do not understand what is true. Think about which of these is more important. Is it the gold things in the temple? Or is it the temple itself? It is the temple that makes the gold things special.

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Footnotes

  1. 23:16 Jesus meant that the teachers of God's Law and Pharisees did not understand about the kingdom. They were like men who could not see. They did not know God's way, but they were trying to teach it to other people.