Matthew 7:4

Or how will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye;’ and behold, the beam is in your own eye?

World English Bible
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Other translations

WEBBE

Or how will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ and behold, the beam is in your own eye?

BSB

How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye?

KJV

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

ASV

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?

BBE

Or how will you say to your brother, Let me take out the grain of dust from your eye, when you yourself have a bit of wood in your eye?

Original Greek

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ἢ ē Or G2228 πῶς pōs how G4459 ἐρεῖς ereis will you say G4483 τῷ tō to the G3588 ἀδελφῷ adelphō brother G80 σου sou of you G4771 ἄφες aphes do permit that G863 ἐκβάλω ekbalō I may cast out G1544 τὸ to the G3588 κάρφος karphos splinter G2595 ἐκ ek from G1537 τοῦ tou the G3588 ὀφθαλμοῦ ophthalmou eye G3788 σου sou of you G4771 καὶ kai and G2532 ἰδοὺ idou behold G2400 ἡ hē the G3588 δοκὸς dokos beam G1385 ἐν en [is] in G1722 τῷ tō the G3588 ὀφθαλμῷ ophthalmō eye G3788 σοῦ; sou of you G4771

The early church

That is, with what face can you charge your brother with sin, when yourself are living in the same or a yet greater sin?
Pseudo-Chrysostom · d. 500Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)
"Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye?" Yea, for many now do this; if they see but a monk wearing an unnecessary garment, they produce against him the law of our Lord, while they themselves are extorting without end, and defrauding men every day. If they see him but partaking rather largely of food, they become bitter accusers, while they themselves are daily drinking to excess and surfeiting: not knowing, that besides their own sins, they do hereby gather up for themselves a greater flame, and deprive themselves of every plea. For on this point, that thine own doings must be strictly inquired into, thou thyself hast first made the law, by thus sentencing those of thy neighbor. Account it not then to be a grievous thing, if thou art also thyself to undergo the same kind of trial.
John Chrysostom · d. 407Homilies on Matthew
He speaks of such as though themselves guilty of mortal sin, do not forgive a trivial fault in their brother.
Jerome · d. 420Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)

Commentary

Matthew Henry · Verses 1–6

We must judge ourselves, and judge of our own acts, but not make our word a law to everybody. We must not judge rashly, nor pass judgment upon our brother without any ground. We must not make the worst of people. Here is a just reproof to those who quarrel with their brethren for small faults, while they allow themselves in greater ones. Some sins are as motes, while others are as beams; some as a gnat, others as a camel. Not that there is any sin little; if it be a mote, or splinter, it is in the eye; if a gnat, it is in the throat; both are painful and dangerous, and we cannot be easy or well till they are got out. That which charity teaches us to call but a splinter in our brother's eye, true repentance and godly sorrow will teach us to call a beam in our own. It is as strange that a man can be in a sinful, miserable condition, and not be aware of it, as that a man should have a beam in his eye, and not consider it; but the god of this world blinds their minds. Here is a good rule for reprovers; first reform thyself.

Read Matthew Henry on Matthew 7 →

Parallel passages

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The same words or events elsewhere.

Luke 6:42

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Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Hebrew and Greek data from STEPBible.org (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0. Library: sources.