Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?
Parallel translations
- WEB Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye?
- KJV And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
- NKJV And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
- NASB Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
- NLT “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?
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
Why notice a speck in another's eye while ignoring the plank in your own? Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of magnifying others' faults while excusing our own.
Overview
With deliberate exaggeration, Jesus pictures someone fixated on a tiny speck in a neighbor's eye while a great beam protrudes from his own. The image lays bare the hypocrisy of harsh judgment that overlooks one's larger sins. It calls for honest self-examination before any attempt to correct another.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- John 8:7–9When they continued to question Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.”
- Gal 6:1Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
- Luke 6:41–42Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?
- 2 Sam 12:5–6David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan: “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!
- Luke 18:11The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like the other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
- Ps 50:16–21To the wicked, however, God says, “What right have you to recite My statutes and to bear My covenant on your lips?
- 2 Chr 28:9–10But a prophet of the LORD named Oded was there, and he went out to meet the army that returned to Samaria. “Look,” he said to them, “because of His wrath against Judah, the LORD, the God of your fathers, has delivered them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches up to heaven.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 7:3 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
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