Text -- Matthew 7:1-9 (NET)

Do Not Judge

7:1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 7:2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. 7:3 Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? 7:4 Or how can you say 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.

Ask, Seek, Knock

7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. 7:8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 7:9 Is there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Mat 7:1

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.

NET Notes: Mat 7:2

¹ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”

NET Notes: Mat 7:3

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

² sn The term translated speck refers to a small piece of wood, chaff, or straw; see L&N 3.66.

³ tn Or “do not notice.”

⁴ 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).

NET Notes: Mat 7:4

¹ tn Grk “how will you say?”

NET Notes: Mat 7:6

¹ 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”).

NET Notes: Mat 7:7

¹ sn The three present imperatives in this verse (Ask…seek…knock) are probably intended to call for a repeated or continual approach before God.

² tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation here and in v. 8 for clarity.

NET Notes: Mat 7:8

¹ sn The actions of asking, seeking, and knocking are repeated here from v. 7 with the encouragement that God does respond.

NET Notes: Mat 7:9

¹ tn Grk “Or is there.”