Matthew 7:1–6

Do Not Judge

7:1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.1 7:2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive.2 7:3 Why3 do you see the speck4 in your brother’s eye, but fail to see5 the beam of wood6 in your own? 7:4 Or how can you say7 to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own? 7:5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 7:6 Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces.8

1	sn The point of the statement do not judge so that you will not be judged is that the standards we apply to others God applies to us. The passive verbs in this verse look to God’s action.
2	tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”
3	tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
4	sn The term translated speck refers to a small piece of wood, chaff, or straw; see L&N 3.66.
5	tn Or “do not notice.”
6	sn The term beam of wood refers to a very big piece of wood, the main beam of a building, in contrast to the speck in the other’s eye (L&N 7.78).
7	tn Grk “how will you say?”
8	tn Or “otherwise the latter will trample them under their feet and the former will turn around and tear you to pieces.” This verse is sometimes understood as a chiasm of the pattern a-b-b-a, in which the first and last clauses belong together (“dogs … turn around and tear you to pieces”) and the second and third clauses belong together (“pigs … trample them under their feet”).