English Standard Version
Matthew 23:24
24You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
Matthew 23:24 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
- New International Version (NIV)You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
- New Living Translation (NLT)Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!
Context of Matthew 23:24
22And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. 23"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! 25"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
Read all of Matthew 23Matthew 23:24 word by word
ὁδηγοὶ τυφλοί, οἱ διϋλίζοντες τὸν κώνωπα, τὴν δὲ κάμηλον καταπίνοντες.¶Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Matthew 23:24
- Matthew 7:4Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye?
- Matthew 15:2"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat."
- Matthew 19:24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."
- Matthew 27:6But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money."
- Luke 6:7And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him.
- John 18:28Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.
Commentaries on Matthew 23:24
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 24Blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. - This clause should be thus translated: Ye strain out the gnat, but ye swallow down the camel. In the common translation, Ye strain At a gnat, conveys no sense. Indeed, it is likely to have been at first an error of the press, At for Out, which, on examination, I find escaped in the edition of 1611, and has been regularly continued since. There is now before me, "The Newe Testament, (both in…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 24Which strain at a gnat - This is a proverb. There is, however, a mistranslation or misprint here, which makes the verse unmeaning. “To strain” at a “gnat” conveys no sense. It should have been to strain out a gnat; and so it is printed in some of the earlier versions, and so it was undoubtedly rendered by the translators. The common reading is a “misprint,” and should be corrected. The Greek means to “strain” out by a cloth or sieve. A gnat - The gnat…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 13-33Verses 13-33 The scribes and Pharisees were enemies to the gospel of Christ, and therefore to the salvation of the souls of men. It is bad to keep away from Christ ourselves, but worse also to keep others from him. Yet it is no new thing for the show and form of godliness to be made a cloak to the greatest enormities. But dissembled piety will be reckoned double iniquity. They were very busy to turn souls to be of their party. Not for the glory of God and…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 24gnat … camel: In Aramaic, the language Jesus likely spoke, these two words sound similar (qalma … gamla). This makes a wordplay or pun. Jesus used the contrast between a tiny gnat and a huge camel to show the hypocrisy of focusing on small details while ignoring much greater issues.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2424. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat--The proper rendering--as in the older English translations, and perhaps our own as it came from the translators' hands--evidently is, "strain out." It was the custom, says Trench, of the stricter Jews to strain their wine, vinegar, and other potables through linen or gauze, lest unawares they should drink down some little unclean insect therein and thus transgress (Le 11:20, 23, 41, 42)--just as the Buddhists…Read the comment
Topics related to Matthew 23:24
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Matthew 23
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Catena Aurea
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- John Lightfoot Commentary
- Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- The Fourfold Gospel and Commentary on Acts
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries