Hosea 4:17

4:17 Ephraim has attached himself to idols;

Do not go near him!

Matthew 7:6

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. ¹ 

Matthew 15:14

15:14 Leave them! They are blind guides. ²  If someone who is blind leads another who is blind, ³  both will fall into a pit.”

Matthew 15:1

Breaking Human Traditions

15:1 Then Pharisees ⁴  and experts in the law ⁵  came from Jerusalem ⁶  to Jesus and said, ⁷ 

Matthew 6:3-5

6:3 But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 6:4 so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. ⁸ 

Private Prayer

6:5 “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues ⁹  and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.

Matthew 6:2

6:2 Thus whenever you do charitable giving, ¹⁰  do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues ¹¹  and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, ¹²  they have their reward.

Matthew 4:3-4

4:3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” ¹³  4:4 But he answered, ¹⁴  “It is written, ‘Man ¹⁵  does not live ¹⁶  by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” ¹⁷ 

Revelation 22:11-12

22:11 The evildoer must continue to do evil, ¹⁸  and the one who is morally filthy ¹⁹  must continue to be filthy. The ²⁰  one who is righteous must continue to act righteously, and the one who is holy must continue to be holy.”

22:12 (Look! I am coming soon,

and my reward is with me to pay ²¹  each one according to what he has done!

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”).

² tc ‡ Most mss, some of which are significant, read “They are blind guides of the blind” (א¹ C L W Z Θ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat). The shorter reading is read by א*^,2 B D 0237 Epiph. There is a distinct possibility of omission due to homoioarcton in א*; this manuscript has a word order variation which puts the word τυφλοί (tufloi, “blind”) right before the word τυφλῶν (tuflwn, “of the blind”). This does not explain the shorter reading, however, in the other witnesses, of which B and D are quite weighty. Internal considerations suggest that the shorter reading is original: “of the blind” was likely added by scribes to balance this phrase with Jesus’ following statement about the blind leading the blind, which clearly has two groups in view. A decision is difficult, but internal considerations here along with the strength of the witnesses argue that the shorter reading is more likely original. NA²⁷ places τυφλῶν in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

³ tn Grk “If blind leads blind.”

⁴ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

⁵ tn Or “and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁷ tn The participle λέγοντες (legontes) has been translated as a finite verb so that its telic (i.e., final or conclusive) force can be more easily detected: The Pharisees and legal experts came to Jesus in order to speak with him.

⁸ tc L W Θ 0250 Ï it read ἐν τῷ φανερῷ (en tw fanerw, “openly”) at the end of this verse, giving a counterweight to what is done in secret. But this reading is suspect because of the obvious literary balance, because of detouring the point of the passage (the focus of vv. 1-4 is not on two kinds of public rewards but on human vs. divine approbation), and because of superior external testimony that lacks this reading (א B D Z Ë^1,13 33 al).

⁹ sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.

¹⁰ tn Grk “give alms,” but this term is not in common use today. The giving of alms was highly regarded in the ancient world (Deut 15:7-11).

¹¹ sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.

¹² tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

¹³ tn Grk “say that these stones should become bread.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “answering, he said.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant, but the syntax of the phrase has been changed for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Or “a person.” Greek ὁ ἄνθρωπος (Jo anqrwpo") is used generically for humanity. The translation “man” is used because the emphasis in Jesus’ response seems to be on his dependence on God as a man.

¹⁶ tn Grk “will not live.” The verb in Greek is a future tense, but it is unclear whether it is meant to be taken as a command (also known as an imperatival future) or as a statement of reality (predictive future).

¹⁷ sn A quotation from Deut 8:3.

¹⁸ tn Grk “must do evil still.”

¹⁹ tn For this translation see L&N 88.258; the term refers to living in moral filth.

²⁰ tn Grk “filthy, and the.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in Greek, but because of the length and complexity of the construction a new sentence was started in the translation.

²¹ tn The Greek term may be translated either “pay” or “pay back” and has something of a double meaning here. However, because of the mention of “wages” (“reward,” another wordplay with two meanings) in the previous clause, the translation “pay” for ἀποδοῦναι (apodounai) was used here.