Matthew 18:8 (YLT)

Passage

`And if thy hand or thy foot doth cause thee to stumble, cut them off and cast from thee; it is good for thee to enter into the life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast to the fire the age-during.

Nearby Context

Matthew 18:6 and whoever may cause to stumble one of those little ones who are believing in me, it is better for him that a weighty millstone may be hanged upon his neck, and he may be sunk in the depth of the sea.

Matthew 18:7 `Woe to the world from the stumbling-blocks! for there is a necessity for the stumbling-blocks to come, but woe to that man through whom the stumbling-block doth come!

Matthew 18:8 `And if thy hand or thy foot doth cause thee to stumble, cut them off and cast from thee; it is good for thee to enter into the life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast to the fire the age-during.

Matthew 18:9 `And if thine eye doth cause thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast from thee; it is good for thee one-eyed to enter into the life, rather than having two eyes to be cast to the gehenna of the fire.

Matthew 18:10 `Beware! --ye may not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their messengers in the heavens do always behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens,

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "hand", "foot", "doth", "cause", "thee", "stumble", and "cast". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "hand" and "foot", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 7's "Woe to the world from the stumbling-blocks..." into verse 9's "And if thine eye doth cause thee...", so "hand" and "foot" 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 "hand" and "foot" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.