Jesus Christ · The Sermon on the Mount
Pearls Before Swine
Right after “judge not,” Jesus adds a counter-balance: discernment is still required. “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine.” Not everyone, and not every moment, is receptive to sacred truth — and forcing it on hostile, mocking hearers serves neither them nor the truth.
The Text
— Matthew 7:6Do 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.Holy things and dogs; pearls and swine — two pictures, one warning.
This one verse sits between “judge not, that ye be not judged” (7:1–5) and “ask, and it shall be given you” (7:7–11). Jesus has just forbidden a censorious, hair-splitting judgment of others. He does not, in the next breath, forbid all discernment — He requires it.
The Emblem
— restraint, on a single-verse pageTHAT WHICH IS HOLY
DOGS · SWINE
lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you
What He Is Saying
— a counter-balance, not a contradiction“Judge not” forbids a proud, self-blind censoriousness — condemning a brother's speck while ignoring your own plank. “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs” forbids the opposite failure: handing over sacred things to those who will only trample and turn to attack. Both verses call for the same thing — honest self-examination first, then a discerning read of who stands in front of you.
Dogs and pigs — what the pictures meant, and what they never meantritual uncleanness, not ethnicity
Dogs and pigs were both ritually unclean categories in Jewish life — vivid images of profane, hostile unreceptiveness, not tame pets or livestock. Jesus reaches for the most vivid unclean images available to say: some hearers will not receive sacred truth, and some will turn on the one who offers it. This is not, and has never rightly been, a statement about any ethnic or social group — a misreading worth naming and setting firmly aside.
The Voices
— the church hears Matthew 7:6(Verse 6) Do not give what is holy to the dogs. Holy, it is the bread of the children. Therefore, we should not take the bread of the children and give it to the dogs. Do not cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. The pig does not appreciate ornamentation, as it wallows in the mire. And according to the Proverbs of Solomon: If he has a golden circle, he is found to be more vile. (Prov. XI, 22).
Jerome· Commentary on Matthew (420), on 7:6
Give not - to dogs - lest turning they rend you: Cast not - to swine - lest they trample them under foot. Yet even then, when the beam is cast out of thine own eye, Give not - That is, talk not of the deep things of God to those whom you know to be wallowing in sin. neither declare the great things God hath done for your soul to the profane, furious, persecuting wretches.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), Matt 7:6
Give not that which is holy to the dogs,.... Dogs were unclean creatures by the law; the price of one might not be brought into the house of the Lord, for a vow, Deu 23:18 yea, these creatures were not admitted into several temples of the Heathens (h). Things profane and unclean, as flesh torn by beasts, were ordered to be given to them, Exo 22:31 but nothing that was holy was to be given them, as holy flesh, or the holy oblations, or anything that was consecrated to holy uses; to which is the allusion here.
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746–1748), Matt 7:6
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.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), Matt 7:6
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.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 7:6
Where It Points
— the same discernment, elsewhere in ScriptureAnd if anyone will not welcome you or heed your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.“Shake off the dust” — the same discernment given to the Twelve, for towns that will not receive them.
Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “It was necessary to speak the word of God to you first. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.Paul and Barnabas turn from a hostile synagogue to the Gentiles — the pattern in practice.
He who corrects a mocker brings shame on himself; he who rebukes a wicked man taints himself. Do not rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.“Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee” — the same warning centuries earlier.
Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”The dog and the sow, named again — a settled nature that turns back to what it was in, not a momentary lapse.
The pattern repeats across Scripture: offer the truth, and where it is met with settled scorn rather than honest resistance, move on rather than force it. That is not despair over the hostile hearer — it is stewardship of what is holy.
Closing
“Judge not” and “give not that which is holy unto the dogs” stand side by side on purpose. Grace toward a brother's faults and discernment toward a scorner's hostility are not in tension — both guard the same thing: sacred truth, handled wisely.