Matthew 7:6 (DBY)

Passage

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.

Nearby Context

Matthew 7:4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Allow [me], I will cast out the mote from thine eye; and behold, the beam is in thine eye?

Matthew 7:5 Hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine eye, and then thou wilt see clearly to cast out the mote out of the eye of thy brother.

Matthew 7:6 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.

Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.

Matthew 7:8 For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "give", "holy", "dogs", "cast", "pearls", "before", "swine", and "lest". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "give" and "holy", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 5's "Hypocrite cast out first the beam out..." into verse 7's "Ask and it shall be given to...", so "give" and "holy" belong inside that flow. In Matthew context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "give" and "holy" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.