9. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one [out of the common, more eminent, more remarkable, and] superior to a prophet.
10. This is the one of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, who shall make ready Your way before You. [Mal. 3:1.]
11. Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12. And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize–a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].
13. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied up until John.
14. And if you are willing to receive and accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come [before the kingdom]. [Mal. 4:5.]
15. He who has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him consider and perceive and comprehend by hearing.
16. But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like little children sitting in the marketplaces who call to their playmates,
17. We piped to you [playing wedding], and you did not dance; we wailed dirges [playing funeral], and you did not mourn and beat your breasts and weep aloud.
18. For John came neither eating nor drinking [with others], and they say, He has a demon!
19. The Son of Man came eating and drinking [with others], and they say, Behold, a glutton and a wine drinker, a friend of tax collectors and [especially wicked] sinners! Yet wisdom is justified and vindicated by what she does (her deeds) and by her children.
20. Then He began to censure and reproach the cities in which most of His mighty works had been performed, because they did not repent [and their hearts were not changed].
21. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes [and their hearts would have been changed].
22. I tell you [further], it shall be more endurable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.