Matthew 7:3-9

7:3 Why ¹  do you see the speck ²  in your brother’s eye, but fail to see ³  the beam of wood ⁴  in your own? 7:4 Or how can you say ⁵  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. ⁶ 

Ask, Seek, Knock

7:7 “Ask ⁷  and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door ⁸  will be opened for you. 7:8 For everyone who asks ⁹  receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 7:9 Is ¹⁰  there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

[7:3]  ¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[7:3]  ² sn The term translated speck refers to a small piece of wood, chaff, or straw; see L&N 3.66.

[7:3]  ³ tn Or “do not notice.”

[7:3]  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).

[7:4]  ⁵ tn Grk “how will you say?”

[7:6]  ⁹ 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”).

[7:7]  ¹³ sn The three present imperatives in this verse (Ask…seek…knock) are probably intended to call for a repeated or continual approach before God.

[7:7]  ¹⁴ 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.

[7:8]  ¹⁷ sn The actions of asking, seeking, and knocking are repeated here from v. 7 with the encouragement that God does respond.

[7:9]  ²¹ tn Grk “Or is there.”