Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like whited (or 'white-washed') sepulchres
(cf. Acts 23:3). The process of white-washing the sepulchres, as Lightfoot says, was performed on a certain day ever year, not for ceremonial cleansing, but, as the following words seem rather to imply, to beautify them.
Which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. What a powerful way of conveying the charge, that with all their fair show their hearts were full of corruption! (Compare Psalms 5:9; Romans 3:13.) But our Lord, stripping off the figure, next holds up their iniquity in naked colours!