2. 'Ev $ perpu, ivith what measure) The principle of the lex talionis.1
3. 'Ev r& otpSaXpfy in the eye) In that part of the body which is the most noble, the most delicate, and the most conspicuous. — sv TU e&, in thine oicn) See Rom. ii. 21, 23.
4. Tl£)$, how ?) i.e. How is it fitting for you to do so ?
5. Aia(3s.i-^ei$, thou shalt see beyond) now that the beam has been taken out of the way, and no longer interposes itself be tween you and your brother's eye, and that your own is relieved of the incumbrance. He who, having first corrected himself, seeks to correct another, is not a perverse judge.2
6. M^ bun, give not) Here we meet with the other extreme ; for the two extremes are, to judge those who ought not to be judged, and to give holy things to the dogs. Too much severity and too much laxity.3 — xuel, ^o/pwv, dogs, swine) Dogs feed on their own filth, swine on that of others. See Gnomon on 2 Pet. ii. 22 ; Phil. iii. 2. The holy and dogs are put in oppo sition to each other in Exod. xxii. 30 ;4 a dog is not a wild beast, but yet it is an unclean animal. — y//,£v, your} An implied anti- theton.5 That which is holy is the property of GOD ; pearls are the secret treasures of the faithful, intrusted to them by GOD. — fr^caffiv, rend) This also appears to refer to the swine.6 — vpas, you) From whom they expected something else, husks, etc.
1 So it is not hard to judge, what retribution hereafter each one is likely to have. — V. g.
2 For what man is there, who does not gladly allow a straw [thorn] to be extracted from his finger, not to say from his eye, by a skilfully applied hand ? The principle is the same as in the gnat and the camel, chap, xxiii. 24.— V. g.
3 This admonition especially has regard to our daily conversation. When such things are set before them in public, such persons lightly pass over them. — V. g.
* This is the Hebrew notation. In the Septuagint, Vulgate, and English Version it is reckoned as the thirtieth. It runs thus — " And ye shall be HOLY men unto me ; neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field: ye shall cast it to the DOGS." — (I. B.)
8 Sc. between you and swine. — (I. B.)
8 Swine attack the pearls with their feet, the saints with their tusk. A well-disposed man is more than once apt to suppose, that what seems sacred and precious to him, ought to seem so to others also, until he learns, by ex perience of the contrary, to act with more caution. — V. g.