Mat 23:4, 29-36 | Family | STEP | Heavy burdens ; grievous and troublesome ceremonies and observances which they required. They rigidly expounded certain parts of the divine law as binding on the people, while they themselves, secretly or openly, claimed a release from them.

Matthew 23:4

Heavy burdens; grievous and troublesome ceremonies and observances which they required. They rigidly expounded certain parts of the divine law as binding on the people, while they themselves, secretly or openly, claimed a release from them.

Matthew 23:29-36

Garnish; beautify; adorn; as if they had great regard for good men. Witness--children of them which killed the prophets; by calling the murderers of the prophets "our fathers," they acknowledged themselves to be their literal children; and by imitating them in their deeds, they proved themselves their children in character. Measure; the measure of their sins till wrath should come upon them. Prophets; his apostles and other teachers of his religion. Ac 5:17,40; 7:59. The most awful denunciations of divine wrath against the wicked are perfectly consistent with the greatest kindness, the most tender compassions, and the most earnest desire that they should turn from their sins and live. All the righteous blood shed upon the earth; they were about to murder the Son of God, and in so doing, to set as it were their seal and sanction to all the murders of good men before them. They would therefore be treated accordingly.

Zacharias, son of Barachias; it is not certainly known to whom the Saviour refers. A probable opinion is, that Zechariah the son of Jehoiada is meant. See 2Ch 24:20-22. According to the arrangement of the Jewish canon, which puts the two books of Chronicles last, Abel is the first righteous man whose murder is recorded, and this Zechariah the last. Some think that Barachiah was another name borne by Jehoiada; others, that the reading should be Jehoiada instead of Barachias. These things; the punishments due to their sins.