43. You Pharisees are in for trouble! You love the front seats in the meeting places, and you like to be greeted with honour in the market.
44. But you are in for trouble! You are like unmarked graves that people walk on without even knowing it.
45. A teacher of the Law of Moses spoke up, “Teacher, you said cruel things about us.”
46. Jesus replied:You teachers are also in for trouble! You load people down with heavy burdens, but you won't lift a finger to help them carry the loads.
47. Yes, you are really in for trouble. You build monuments to honour the prophets your own people murdered long ago.
48. You must think that was the right thing for your people to do, or else you would not have built monuments for the prophets they murdered.
49. Because of your evil deeds, the Wisdom of God said, “I will send prophets and apostles to you. But you will murder some and ill-treat others.”
50. You people living today will be punished for all the prophets who have been murdered since the beginning of the world.
51. This includes every prophet from the time of Abel to the time of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the temple. You people will certainly be punished for all this.
52. You teachers of the Law of Moses are really in for trouble! You carry the keys to the door of knowledge about God. But you never go in, and you keep others from going in.
53. Jesus was about to leave, but the teachers and the Pharisees wanted to get even with him. They tried to make him say what he thought about other things,