Matthew 23:23"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
The setting
Jerusalem temple area, ~30 AD. Jesus lists the tiny herbs Pharisees meticulously tithed while ignoring systemic injustice around them. Modern Jerusalem, Israel.
The emotion here: exasperated with misplaced priorities
The original word
dikaiosyne (δικαιοσύνη) — justice, not just personal righteousness but social fairness
Why it matters
Mint, dill, and cumin were kitchen herbs - tithing them was like counting salt grains
Read with care
What most readers miss in Matthew 23:23
Jesus listed these herbs in order of value - from worthless mint to slightly valuable cumin
Common misconceptionPeople think Jesus is against attention to detail, but He's against obsessing over tiny details while ignoring huge moral failures.
The thread continues
Verses that echo Matthew 23:23
Bible Genome reading
Matthew 23:23 — Bible Genome reading
Emotional genome
Matthew 23:23 comes from the book of Matthew, written during the gospel period. The setting is the Temple. These words are attributed to Jesus. The dominant emotion in this verse is angry, with a comfort power of 15% and a tone that is commanding. It belongs to the narrative genre of biblical literature. Key themes include justice, mercy, priorities. Notable phrases: justice mercy and faith; strain out a gnat. This verse contains a command.
Emotionally similar
Verses that meet the same angry
“Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'”
— Joel 3:10
“You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!”
— Matthew 23:24
“Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husba…”
— Amos 4:1
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can't stand your solemn assemblies.”
— Amos 5:21
“Your eyes shall not pity; life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”
— Deuteronomy 19:21
Your reflection
What does Matthew 23:23 mean to you, today?
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