Verse 33
Jesus repeated epithets that He had used before to announce His critics’ condemnation (cf. Matthew 3:7; Matthew 12:34). They would perish in hell for their failure to accept Jesus (cf. Matthew 5:22; Matthew 23:15).
"There is today only one proper Christian use of the woe saying of this pericope. It is found not primarily in the application of the passage to the historical Pharisees, and even less to modern Judaism as a religion, but in the application of the passage to members of the church. Hypocrisy is the real enemy of this pericope, not the scribes, the Pharisees, or the Jews. If, on the model of this pericope, a bitter woe is to be pronounced against anyone today, it must be directed solely against hypocrisy in the church (cf. 1 Peter 2:1)." [Note: Hagner, Matthew 14-28, p. 673.]
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