Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Parallel translations
- WEB You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
- BSB You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
- NKJV Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
- NASB You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
- NLT Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They strain out a gnat but swallow a camel, a vivid image of fussing over trifles while ignoring gross sin. It mocks misplaced priorities in religion.
Overview
Using deliberate hyperbole, Jesus pictures the leaders filtering out the smallest unclean insect while gulping down the largest unclean animal. Their religion obsessed over minutiae while overlooking enormous moral failures. The image warns against any piety that fixates on small matters and neglects the great commands to love God and neighbor.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Matt 19:24And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
- Matt 27:6–8And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.
- Matt 15:2–6Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
- Luke 6:7–10And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him.
- John 18:28Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.
- Matt 23:16Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
- John 18:40Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.
- Matt 7:4Or 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?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 23:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.