What Does Matthew 7:6 Mean?
Do not give what is set apart to the dogs, and do not throw your pearls before the swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn around and tear you apart.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The danger is reciprocal: contempt reaches past the sacred gift and turns toward the person who offered it.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to a real boundary: sacred things can be met with contempt rather than care. When they are trampled, that contempt can turn toward the person who offered them. The warning holds both the value of the gift and the vulnerability of its giver in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a sincere offering is automatically safe or welcomed: what is precious can be despised, and the giver can be harmed.
THE ROOT
στραφέντες
straphentes
GROWS FROM
στρεφ-
streph-
turn, turn around
“turn around” in this verse is straphentes. The Greek word means “having turned”; the following verb supplies the tearing. The sequence matters: after the gift is trampled, the turn is directed toward the giver, so the harm does not stop at the offering.
ALSO GROWS
epistrephō: turn back, return
ἐπιστρέφω
It shares the turn-family and makes clear that turning describes a change of direction; here, the next action shows that direction becoming hostile.
apostrephō: turn away
ἀποστρέφω
This branch shows the same root can mark a turning away, while this verse depicts a turn toward the person who offered the gift.
καταπατήσωσιν
katapatēsōsin
GROWS FROM
πατέω
pateō
tread, step
“trample” in this verse is katapatēsōsin. The verb combines the sense of treading with “down,” making the image one of deliberate trampling. The same tread-family also describes ordinary walking, so the passage’s violence comes from this downward action and its context, not from the root by itself.
ALSO GROWS
katapateō: tread down, trample
καταπατέω
This is the verb used here: the pearls are put underfoot before the animals turn on the giver.
peripateō: walk about
περιπατέω
It shares the tread-family in a word for walking, revealing the physical image beneath the English distinction between walking and trampling.
ἅγιον
hagion
GROWS FROM
ἁγι-
hagi-
sacred, set apart
“Holy” names something belonging to a distinct, sacred sphere; it is more than something merely valuable. The verse places that sacred thing beside the image of trampling, exposing the cost of placing what is set apart where it is treated as common.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: set apart, consecrate
ἁγιάζω
This verb shares the sacred word-family and shows the action associated with what is holy: setting something apart.
hagiasmos: setting apart, sanctification
ἁγιασμός
This noun names the state or process of being set apart, deepening the sense of the gift as something sacred rather than interchangeable.
THE PATTERN
When a sacred offering meets contempt, the exposure can wound both the gift and the giver.
The one who straightens a scoffer takes lightness to himself, and the one who reproves the wicked takes his own blemish.Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he scorns the insight of your words.Whoever will not take you in, nor hear and respond to your words, as you go out from that house or city, shake the dust out from your feet.THE THREAD
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has gone dull, with what shall it be salted? It has no strength left for anything, except to be thrown outside and trampled underfoot by humankind.Matthew uses the same Greek verb, καταπατέω (katapateō), meaning “trample” or “tread down,” for salt trodden underfoot and the sacred gift trampled. That shared image makes the threat concrete: contempt puts the gift underfoot, and Matthew 7:6 adds the turn toward the giver.
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