Matthew 23:24
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You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
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 (Lev 11:20, Lev 11:23, Lev 11:41-42) --just as the Buddhists do now in Ceylon and Hindustan--and to this custom of theirs our Lord here refers. and swallow a camel--the largest animal the Jews knew, as the "gnat" was the smallest; both were by the law unclean.
Open source ↗23:24 gnat . . . camel: These words form a pun in Aramaic (qalma . . . gamla), the language Jesus probably spoke.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.
Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’
“Not this man,” they shouted, “but Barabbas!” (Now Barabbas was an insurrectionist.)
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?