John Calvin Commentary Matthew 23:32

"Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers." — Matthew 23:32 (ASV)

Do you then fill up the measure of your fathers. He finally concludes that, in this respect, they have not departed from their fathers’ pattern; as if he had said, “It is not as if your nation is only now beginning to treat God’s prophets with cruelty; for this is an ancient practice, this is the custom handed down from your ancestors, and, in short, this way of acting is almost natural to you.”

And yet he is not commanding them to do what they are doing (to put holy teachers to death), but states figuratively that they have a kind of hereditary right to rise against God’s servants, and that they must, as it were, be permitted to oppose religion, because in this way they fill up what is lacking in the crimes of their fathers and finish the web that their fathers had begun.

By these words, he not only declares them to be beyond hope and incapable of being brought to a sound mind, but he also warns ordinary people that it is no surprise if God’s prophets are mistreated by the children of murderers.