Matthew 7 · Verse 6

Matthew 7:6

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Matthew 7:6, King James Version

Matthew 7:6 in other translations

BSB	Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
WEB	“Don’t give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
ASV	Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you.
YLT	‘Ye may not give that which is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before the swine, that they may not trample them among their feet, and having turned--may rend you.
DARBY	Give not that which is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before the swine, lest they trample them with their feet, and turning round rend you.
BBE	Do not give that which is holy to the dogs, or put your jewels before pigs, for fear that they will be crushed under foot by the pigs whose attack will then be made against you.
Webster	Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

What does Matthew 7:6 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

6. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs--savage or snarling haters of truth and righteousness. neither cast ye your pearls before swine--the impure or coarse, who are incapable of appreciating the priceless jewels of Christianity. In the East, dogs are wilder and more gregarious, and, feeding on carrion and garbage, are coarser and fiercer than the same animals in the West. Dogs and swine, besides being ceremonially unclean, were peculiarly repulsive to the Jews, and indeed to the ancients generally. lest they trample them under their feet--as swine do. and turn again and rend you--as dogs do. Religion is brought into contempt, and its professors insulted, when it is forced upon those who cannot value it and will not have it. But while the indiscriminately zealous have need of this caution, let us be on our guard against too readily setting our neighbors down as dogs and swine, and excusing ourselves from endeavoring to do them good on this poor plea. Prayer (Mt 7:7-11). Enough, one might think, had been said on this subject in Mt 6:5-15. But the difficulty of the foregoing duties seems to have recalled the subject, and this gives it quite a new turn. "How shall we ever be able to carry out such precepts as these, of tender, holy, yet discriminating love?" might the humble disciple inquire. "Go to God with it," is our Lord's reply; but He expresses this with a fulness which leaves nothing to be desired, urging now not only confidence, but importunity in prayer.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Barnes' Notes

Verse 6. Give not that which is holy, etc. By some, the word holy has been supposed to mean flesh offered in sacrifice, made holy, or separated to a sacred use. But it probably means here anything connected with religion--admonition, precept, or doctrine. Pearls are precious stones found in shell-fish, chiefly in India, in the waters that surround Ceylon. They are used to denote anything peculiarly precious, Rev 17:4, 18:12-16, Mt 13:46. In this place they are used to denote the doctrines of the gospel. Dogs signify men who spurn, oppose, and abuse that doctrine; men of peculiar sourness and malignity of temper, who meet it like growling and quarrelsome curs, 2Pet 2:22, Rev 22:15. Swine denote those who would trample the precepts under feet; men of impurity of life; corrupt, polluted, profane, obscene, and sensual; who would not know the value of the gospel, and who would tread it down as swine would pearls, 2Pet 2:22, Prov 11:22. The meaning of this proverb then is, do not offer your doctrine to those violent and abusive men, who would growl and curse you; nor to those peculiarly debased and profligate, who would not perceive its value, would trample it down, and abuse you. This verse furnishes a beautiful instance of the introverted parallelism. The usual mode of poetry among the Hebrews, and a common mode of expression in proverbs and apothegms, was by the parallelism, where one member of a sentence answered to another, or expressed substantially the same sense with some addition or modification. See my Introduction to Isaiah. Sometimes this was alternate, and sometimes it was introverted--where the first and fourth lines would correspond, and the second and third. This is the case here. The dogs would rend, and not the swine; the swine would trample the pearls under their feet, and not the dogs. It may be thus expressed:

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs.
Neither cast ye your pearls before swine,
Lest they trample them under their feet,
And turn again [that is, the dogs] and rend you.

(u) "neither cast ye your" Prov 9:7,8, 23:9

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 6 Give not that which is holy - Το αγιον, the holy or sacred thing; i.e. any thing, especially, of the sacrificial kind, which had been consecrated to God. The members of this sentence should be transposed thus: - Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, Lest they turn again and rend you: Neither cast ye your pearls before swine, Lest they trample them under their feet The propriety of this transposition is self-evident. There are many such transpositions as these, both in sacred and profane writers. The following is very remarkable: - "I am black but comely; "As the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon." That is, "I am black as the tents of Kedar, "Comely as the curtains of Solomon." See many proofs of this sort of writing in Mr. Wakefield's Commentary. As a general meaning of this passage, we may just say: "The sacrament of the Lord's supper, and other holy ordinances which are only instituted for the genuine followers of Christ, are not to be dispensed to those who are continually returning like the snarling ill-natured dog to their easily predominant sins of rash judgment, barking at and tearing the characters of others by evil speaking, back biting and slandering; nor to him who, like the swine, is frequently returning to wallow in the mud of sensual gratifications and impurities."

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Matthew 7:1-6

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…

Read the full comment on Matthew 7:1-6 →

Matthew 7:6 in the original Greek

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

ΜὴMēNotG3361

δῶτεdōteshall giveG1325

τὸtothat which [is]G3588

ἅγιονhagionholyG40

τοῖςtoisto theG3588

κυσὶνkusindogsG2965

μηδὲmēdenorG3366

βάλητεbalēteshall castG906

τοὺςtoustheG3588

μαργαρίταςmargaritaspearlsG3135

ὑμῶνhumōnof youG4771

ἔμπροσθενemprosthenbeforeG1715

τῶνtōntheG3588

χοίρωνchoirōnpigsG5519

μήποτεmēpoteotherwiseG3361

καταπατήσουσινkatapatēsousinthey will trample uponG2662

αὐτοὺςautousthemG846

ἐνenwithG1722

τοῖςtoistheG3588

ποσὶνposinfeetG4228

αὐτῶν,autōnof them,G846

καὶkaiandG2532

στραφέντεςstraphenteshaving turnedG4762

ῥήξωσινrhēxōsinthey may tear to piecesG4486

ὑμᾶς.¶humasyou.G4771

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Matthew 7:6

Proverbs 9:7-8
He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
Proverbs 23:9
Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
Matthew 10:14-15
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.
Proverbs 26:11
As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
Matthew 15:26
But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
Acts 13:45-47
But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.
Philippians 3:2
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
Hebrews 10:29
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
2 Peter 2:22
But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
2 Timothy 4:14-15
Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works: Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
Proverbs 11:22
As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.
Matthew 24:10
And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

that.
10:14,15; 15:26; Pr 9:7,8; 23:9; 26:11; Ac 13:45-47; Php 3:2
Heb 6:6; 10:29; 2Pe 2:22
cast.
Pr 11:22
turn.
22:5,6; 24:10; 2Co 11:26; 2Ti 4:14,15

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Matthew 7:5
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Matthew 7:6
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
Matthew 7:7
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

Read all of Matthew 7

Matthew 7:6 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	No deis lo santo á los perros, ni echéis vuestras perlas delante de los puercos; porque no las rehuellen con sus pies, y vuelvan y os despedacen.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Ne donnez pas ce qui est saint aux chiens, ni ne jetez vos perles devant les pourceaux, de peur qu’ils ne les foulent à leurs pieds, et que, se retournant, ils ne vous déchirent.
German Elberfelder 1871	Gebet nicht das Heilige den Hunden; werfet auch nicht eure Perlen vor die Schweine, damit sie dieselben nicht etwa mit ihren Füßen zertreten und sich umwenden und euch zerreißen.
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Nolite dare sanctum canibus: neque mittatis margaritas vestras ante porcos, ne forte conculcent eas pedibus suis, et conversi dirumpant vos.