Luke 11:21-48

²¹When a strong man is keeping guard, fully armed, over his own mansion, his property is in safety;

²²but, when one still stronger has attacked and overpowered him, he takes away all the weapons on which the other had relied, and divides his spoil.

²³Whoever who is not with me is against me, and the person who does not help me to gather is scattering.

²⁴No sooner does a foul spirit leave someone, than it passes through places where there is no water, in search of rest; and finding none, it says ‘I will go back to the home which I left’;

²⁵but, on coming there, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.

²⁶Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in, and make their home there; and the last state of that person proves to be worse than the first.”

²⁷As Jesus was saying this, a woman in the crowd, raising her voice, exclaimed, “Happy was the mother who bore you and nursed you!”

²⁸But Jesus replied, “Rather, happy are those who listen to God's message and keep it.”

²⁹As the crowds increased, Jesus began to speak, “This generation is a wicked generation. It is asking a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.

³⁰For, as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

³¹At the judgement the Queen of the South will rise up with the people of this generation, and will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon; and here is more than a Solomon!

³²At the judgement the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation, and will condemn it, because they repented at Jonah's proclamation; and here is more than a Jonah!

³³No one sets light to a lamp, and then puts it in the cellar or under a basket, but he puts it on the lamp-stand, so that anyone who comes in may see the light.

³⁴The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is unclouded, your whole body, also, is lit up; but, as soon as your eye is diseased, your body, also, is darkened.

³⁵Take care, therefore, that the inner light is not darkness.

³⁶If, then, your whole body is lit up, and no corner of it darkened, the whole will be lit up, just as when a lamp gives you light by its brilliance.”

³⁷As Jesus finished speaking, a Pharisee asked him to breakfast with him, and Jesus went in and took his place at the table.

³⁸The Pharisee noticed, to his astonishment, that Jesus omitted the ceremonial washing before breakfast.

³⁹But the Master said to him, “You Pharisees do, it is true, clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside you yourselves are filled with greed and wickedness.

⁴⁰Fools! Did not the maker of the outside make the inside too?

⁴¹Only give away what is in them in charity, and at once you have the whole clean.

⁴²But alas for you Pharisees! You pay tithes on mint, rue, and herbs of all kinds, and pass over justice and love to God. These last you ought to have put into practise without neglecting the first.

⁴³Alas for you Pharisees! You delight to have the front seat in the synagogues, and to be greeted in the markets with respect.

⁴⁴Alas for you! You are like unsuspected graves, over which men walk unawares.”

⁴⁵Here one of the students of the Law interrupted him by saying, “Teacher, when you say this, you are insulting us also.”

⁴⁶But Jesus went on, “Alas for you, too, you students of the Law! You load people with loads that are too heavy to carry, but do not, yourselves, touch them with one of your fingers.

⁴⁷Alas for you! You build the monuments of the prophets whom your ancestors killed.

⁴⁸You are actually witnesses to your ancestors' acts and show your approval of them, because, while they killed the prophets, you build tombs for them.