11:44a

Woe to you!:
Woe to you is the same phrase that was used in 11:43a. Jesus was still referring to the Pharisees. Consider if you need to make the Pharisees explicit here.

11:44b

For: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as For is the same conjunction as in 11:42b and 11:43b, where the Berean Standard Bible did not translate it. This conjunction introduces another reason why God was going to punish the Pharisees. Some English versions do not translate this conjunction. In some languages it may be natural to introduce this reason without using an explicit conjunction.

you are like unmarked graves: The clause you are like unmarked graves is a figure of speech called a simile. In this simile, Jesus compared the Pharisees to unmarked graves.

Unmarked graves looked like ordinary ground on the outside, so people did not realize that they contained rotting bodies inside. In the same way, the Pharisees appeared to be righteous and religious in their outward behavior. People did not suspect that their unseen inner thoughts and motives were full of evil.

In some languages it will be necessary to make one or more of the points of comparison explicit. For example:

because you ⌊have unseen/hidden filthiness/rottenness inside you⌋ like an unmarked grave
-or-
because you are like hidden graves ⌊that contain rotting/contaminating corpses⌋

unmarked graves: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as unmarked graves refers to graves that were not evident or identifiable as graves. Generally, tombs or graves were painted white so that people knew where they were located. Jesus was referring to places that had not been marked in this way. They looked normal on the outside, but inside they contained dead bodies. Their location was not hidden from view, but it was not obvious that corpses were buried there. Some other ways to translate this expression are:

graves with no marker
-or-
graves that people cannot distinguish

11:44c

which men walk over without even noticing: Sometimes, people walked across or stepped on such graves and did not realize that there were dead people underneath. When they did this, they became ceremonially unclean without knowing it.

The Pharisees were like these graves because they caused other people to become morally unclean. The ordinary people admired them and were influenced by them. But without realizing it, they learned evil ways of thinking and acting from the Pharisees.

men: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as men here refers to people in general.

noticing: There is more than one implied object of noticing. The word can refer to:

(a) noticing that the graves contain rotting bodies

(b) noticing that they have become defiled/unclean

You may need to make some of this implied information explicit in a footnote or in your translation. For example:

which people can step on ⌊and become unclean⌋ without knowing it
-or-
If a person walks over ⌊the surface of a grave like this⌋, he will not know ⌊that there is something rotten/filthy inside that has made him unclean⌋.

A suggested footnote is:

A Jewish person who touched a grave became ceremonially/ritually unclean for seven days. See Numbers 19:16.

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