Matthew - 7:4



4 Or how will you tell your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye;' and behold, the beam is in your own eye?

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Matthew 7:4.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?
Or how sayest thou to thy brother: Let me cast the mote out of thy eye; and behold a beam is in thy own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Allow me, I will cast out the mote from thine eye; and behold, the beam is in thine eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thy eye; and behold, a beam is in thy own eye?
or, how wilt thou say to thy brother, Suffer I may cast out the mote from thine eye, and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?
Or how say to your brother, 'Allow me to take the splinter out of your eye,' while the beam is in your own eye?
Or how will you say to your brother, Let me take out the grain of dust from your eye, when you yourself have a bit of wood in your eye?
Or how will you tell your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye;' and look, the log is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the splinter from your eye,' while, behold, a board is in your own eye?
How will you say to your friend 'Let me take out the speck from your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own?

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Or how wilt thou say - That man is utterly unfit to show the way of life to others who is himself walking in the way of death.

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother?.... This is not so much an interrogation, as an expression of admiration, at the front and impudence of such censorious remarkers, and rigid observators; who not content to point at the faults of others, take upon them to reprove them in a very magisterial way: and it is as if Christ had said, with what face canst thou say to thy friend or neighbour,
let me pull out the mote out of thine eye? give me leave to rebuke thee sharply for thy sin, as it deserves,
and behold a beam is in thine own eye; thou art guilty of a far greater iniquity: astonishing impudence! Art thou so blind, as not to see and observe thy viler wickedness? Or which, if conscious of, how canst thou prevail upon thyself to take upon thee to reprove and censure others? Dost thou think thy brother cannot see thy beam? And may he not justly retort thine iniquities upon thee, which exceed his? and then what success canst thou promise thyself? Such persons are very unfit to be reprovers of others.

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye. The man who finds fault with another for sin, while he is more guilty, is a hypocrite. A great many are very zealous to convert the world, who are themselves unconverted.

How sayest thou - With what face?

*More commentary available at chapter level.


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