In fact, by erecting monuments to the prophets your ancestors killed, you demonstrate your agreement with those murderers and bear witness to their deeds. You’re no better than they!
My brothers and sisters, take the prophets as your mentors. They have prophesied in the name of the Lord and it brought them great sufferings, yet they patiently endured.
“Yet you ask, ‘Why doesn’t the child bear his father’s guilt?’ If a person lives an honest and upright life and keeps my laws and faithfully follows my teachings, he will most certainly live.
“Great sorrow awaits you religious scholars and Pharisees—frauds and imposters! You are nothing more than tombs painted over with white paint—tombs that look shining and beautiful on the outside but filled with rotting corpses on the inside.
What hypocrites! You build monuments to honor the prophets of old, yet it was your murdering ancestors who killed them. The only prophet you’ll honor is a dead one!
Although they are fully aware of God’s laws and proper order, and knowing that those who do all of these things deserve to die, yet they still go headlong into darkness, encouraging others to do the same and applauding them when they do!