The Pharisee stood up and prayed to himself, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—cheats, criminals, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
When you hold up your hands to me in prayer, I'll look away. Even though you pray many prayers, I won't pay attention to them, because your hands are full of blood.
Every day they come to me, pleased to know my ways as if they were a nation that does what is right and follows the laws of their God! They ask me to treat them right; they like to be close to their God.
They tell others, “Keep your distance! Don't come close to me as I'm too holy to be touched by you!” These people are like smoke in my nostrils, a stink burning all day long!
So where are these “gods” of yours that you made for yourselves? Let them come and help you when you're in trouble! Let them save you if they can, because you Israelites have as many gods as you have towns.
you go on saying, “I'm innocent! Surely he can't still be upset with me!” Watch out! I'm going to punish you because you go on saying, “I haven't sinned.”
So my people come and visit you like they usually do. They sit and listen to the message you share, but they don't do anything about it. Even though they talk about love, all they're thinking about is how to cheat others.
Your leaders judge for a bribe, and your priests teach for a price, and your prophets only prophesy for pay. Yet they all lean on the Lord saying, “Isn't the Lord here with us? Nothing bad can happen to us!”
When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand up and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that people can see them. I promise you, they already have their reward.
They cheat widows out of what they own, and cover up the kind of people they really are with long-winded prayers. They will receive severe condemnation in the judgment.”
All those who rely on keeping the law are under a curse, for as Scripture says, “Cursed is everyone who doesn't carefully obey everything that's written in the book of the law.”
You say to yourselves, ‘I'm rich, I have wealth, and don't need anything.’ But you don't know that you are miserable and pitiful and poor and blind and naked.