“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,”
King James Version (KJV)
23:30 We would not have been partakers - So ye make fair professions, as did your fathers.
23:31 Wherefore ye testify against yourselves - By your smooth words as well as devilish actions: that ye are the genuine sons of them who killed the prophets of their own times, while they professed the utmost veneration for those of past ages. From the 3d to the 30th verse #Mt 23:3 |- 30 is exposed every thing that commonly passes in the world for religion, whereby the pretenders to it keep both themselves and others from entering into the kingdom of God; from attaining, or even seeking after those tempers, in which alone true Christianity consists. As, Punctuality in attending on public and private prayer, ver. 4 - 14. #Mt 23:4 |- 14 Zeal to make proselytes to our opinion or communion, though they have less of the spirit of religion than before, ver. 15. #Mt 23:15| A superstitious reverence for consecrated places or things, without any for Him to whom they are consecrated, ver. 16 - 22. #Mt 23:16 |- 22 A scrupulous exactness in little observances, though with the neglect of justice, mercy, and faith, ver. 23, 24. #Mt 23:23|,24 A nice cautiousness to cleanse the outward behaviour, but without any regard to inward purity, ver. 25, 26. #Mt 23:25|,26 A specious face of virtue and piety, covering the deepest hypocrisy and villany, ver. 27, 28. #Mt 23:27|,28 A professed veneration for all good men, except those among whom they live.
Mt 23:29,30 Ye build the tombs of the prophets, etc. They honored the prophets and saints by building monuments to them, instead of following their teaching, or imitating their lives. Even Herod the Great, a monster of wickedness, rebuilt the tomb of David.