15
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!
16
“Blind guides! What sorrow awaits you! For you say that it means nothing to swear ‘by God’s Temple,’ but that it is binding to swear ‘by the gold in the Temple.’
17
Blind fools! Which is more important—the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred?
18
And you say that to swear ‘by the altar’ is not binding, but to swear ‘by the gifts on the altar’ is binding.
19
How blind! For which is more important—the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
20
When you swear ‘by the altar,’ you are swearing by it and by everything on it.
21
And when you swear ‘by the Temple,’ you are swearing by it and by God, who lives in it.
22
And when you swear ‘by heaven,’ you are swearing by the throne of God and by God, who sits on the throne.