Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Ver. 25. Ye make clean the outside] True Ephraimites, or rather Canaanites, so they are called,Hosea 12:7,8, that is, mere natural men, Ezekiel 16:4; the balances of deceit were in their hands, they loved to oppress, yet so long as thereby they grew rich, they flattered themselves, and said, "In all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me, that were sin." Hypocrites if they can but make fair to the worldward it is enough. But as the fish sepia is exposed by the black colour which she casteth out to cover her; so the hypocrite is convinced by the very show of godliness under which he hoped to have lurked. God so discovers his deceitful courses, as that his wickedness is shown before the whole congregation, Proverbs 26:26 .