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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Matthew 7:6 - 7:6
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Prostitution of Holy Things. The opposite extreme to that of censoriousness is here condemned - want of discrimination of character.
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.