# you are like unmarked graves that people walk over without knowing it
The Pharisees were like unmarked graves because they looked ceremonially clean, but they caused people around them to become unclean. (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-simile]])
These graves were holes dug in the ground where a dead body was buried. They did not have the white stones that people normally place over graves so that others would see them.
When the Jews walked over a grave, they would become ceremonially unclean. These unmarked graves caused them to accidentally do that. This can be stated clearly. AT: "without realizing it and become ceremonially unclean" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-explicit]])