Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
| Word | Greek | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woe | Οὐαὶ Ouai | G3759 | "woe" · interjection |
| unto you | ὑμῖν hymîn | G5213 | to (with or by) you |
| scribes | γραμματεῖς grammateis | G1122 | scribe · noun — vocative plural masculine |
| and | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| Pharisees | Φαρισαῖοι Pharisaioi | G5330 | a separatist · noun — vocative plural masculine, a title |
| hypocrites | ὑποκριταί, hupokritai | G5273 | an actor under an assumed character (stage-player) · noun — vocative plural masculine |
| for | ὅτι hoti | G3754 | demonstrative · conjunction |
| ye make clean | καθαρίζετε katharizete | G2511 | to cleanse (literally or figuratively) · verb — present active indicative, 2nd person plural |
| the outside | ἔξωθεν exōthen | G1855 | external(-ly) · preposition |
| of the cup | ποτηρίου potēriou | G4221 | a drinking-vessel · noun — genitive singular neuter |
| and | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| of the platter | παροψίδος, paropsidos | G3953 | a side-dish (the receptacle) · noun — genitive singular feminine |
| but | δὲ de | G1161 | but · conjunction |
| within | ἔσωθεν esōthen | G2081 | from inside · adverb |
| they are full | γέμουσιν gemousin | G1073 | to swell out · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person plural |
| of | ἐξ ex | G1537 | literal or figurative · preposition |
| extortion | ἁρπαγῆς harpagēs | G724 | pillage (properly abstract) · noun — genitive singular feminine |
| and | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| excess | ἀκρασίας. akrasias | G192 | want of self-restraint · noun — genitive singular feminine |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
within they are full of extortion--In Luke (Luk 11:39) the same word is rendered "ravening," that is, "rapacity."
Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,.... Our Lord cannot be thought to bear too hard upon these men, nor does he continue this character of them, and denunciations of woe against them, without a reason: for ye make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. The allusion is to their traditions about washing their cups and pots, and brazen vessels; see Mark 7:4 which they strictly observed. In their oral law is a whole tract, called "Mikvaot", which gives rules about the places where they washed, the things to be washed, and the manner of washing them; about which they were very nice, pretending to much outward cleanness, but had no…
Read the whole note in the consoleMatthew 23:23-28 Matthew 23:23-28 Luke 11:42, 44 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cumin and have omitted the more important points of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith. The latter you ought to have done, and not to have omitted the former. 24. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat, but swallow the camel. 25. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outer part of the cup and of the dish, but within they are full of extortion and intemperance. 26. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first what is within the cup and dish, that the outer parts of them also may be made clean. 27. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,…
Read the whole note in the consolegnat . . . camel: These words form a pun in Aramaic (qalma . . . gamla), the language Jesus probably spoke.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
(Mor. i. 15.) Or otherwise; The gnat stings while it hums; the camel bows its back to receive its load. The Jews then strained off the gnat, when they prayed to have the seditious robber released to them; and they swallowed the camel, when they sought with shouts the death of Him who had voluntarily taken on Him the burden of our mortality.
He therefore is reproving those who, pursuing an ostentation of useless scrupulosity, neglected the discharge of useful morality. For it is the inside of the cup that is used; if that be foul, what profit is it to cleanse the outside? And therefore what is needed is purity of the inner conscience, that those things which are of the body may be clean without.
In different words, but to the same purport as before, He reproves the hypocrisy and dissimulation of the Pharisees, that they showed one face to men abroad, but wore another at home. He means not here, that their scrupulousness respecting the cup and the platter was of any importance, but that they affected it to pass off their sanctity upon men; which is clear from His adding, but inwardly ye are full of ravening and uncleanness.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
