Matthew 7:4-8

7:4 Or how can you say ¹  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. ² 

Ask, Seek, Knock

7:7 “Ask ³  and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door ⁴  will be opened for you. 7:8 For everyone who asks ⁵  receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹ tn Grk “how will you say?”

² 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”).

³ sn The three present imperatives in this verse (Ask…seek…knock) are probably intended to call for a repeated or continual approach before God.

⁴ 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.

⁴ sn The actions of asking, seeking, and knocking are repeated here from v. 7 with the encouragement that God does respond.