6:42a–c

How can you say, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while you yourself fail to see the beam in your own eye?: Here Jesus restated the first rhetorical question. He restated it to rebuke and emphasize that your own sins blind you so that you cannot help others. His emphasis is on the importance of examining your own life and changing behavior that needs to be changed.

Some ways to translate this rebuke are:

• As a rhetorical question. For example:

How can you think of saying, “Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,” when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
Why do you say to your brother, “Brother, let me remove the speck from your eye,” when you yourself do not see the beam in your eye?

• As a statement or exclamation. For example:

It is wrong to say to your brother, “Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you yourself fail to see the plank of wood in your own eye!

Translate this rebuke in a way that is natural in your language.

6:42a

How can you say: The phrase How can you say introduces the rebuke. In some languages, it may be more natural to begin the rebuke with the word “why.” For example:

Why do you say

The Greek says literally, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother.’” In some languages, it may be natural to let the first mention of “brother” remain implicit. That is what the Berean Standard Bible does. Another way to translate this phrase is:

How can you think of saying (New Living Translation (2004))

6:42b

Brother: See the note on “brother’s” at 6:41a.

let me take the speck out of your eye: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as speck is the same Greek word that it translates as “speck” in 6:41a.

6:42c

while you yourself: The phrase you yourself is emphatic. It draws attention to the person who fails to see his own wrong actions/behavior. If you have a way to make this emphatic in your language, use it here.

fail to see: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as fail to see is literally “do not see.” For example:

do not see (Revised Standard Version)

the beam in your own eye: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as beam is the same word as in 6:41b. It refers to a very large, heavy piece of wood, usually used as a beam in building a house. Translate this word the same way in both places.

General Comment on 6:42a–c

In some languages, it may be natural to change the order of the clauses in 6:42a–c. For example:

42cIf you do not see the beam in your own eye, 42ahow can you offer 42bto help your brother take the small piece of wood out of his eye?

6:42d

You hypocrite!: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as hypocrite means “pretender” or “actor.” An actor is someone who pretends to be another person. A hypocrite often:

(a) acted in a way that did not fit what he said he believed;

(b) believed that he honored God, but he did not truly love and honor him.

Some other ways to translate this are:

You show-offs! (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
You fraud… (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

In some languages, people use an idiom for this idea.

Jesus made the exclamation You hypocrite! to emphasize his warning. A person who does not examine his own life but criticizes others is not sincere.

The Greek text says literally just “hypocrite.” The Berean Standard Bible and other English versions add the word “you” to show that this is direct address. Here are some other ways to translate this:

Hypocrite! (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
You are a hypocrite.

First take the beam out of your own eye: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as beam is the same word as in 6:41b and 6:41c. Another way to translate this clause is:

First remove the beam from your own eye (NET Bible)

6:42e

and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye: The phrase and then means “after that.” In this case it is also a result. When a person takes the beam out of his own eye first, the result is that he will see clearly to remove the speck from his brother’s eye.

General Comment on 6:41–42

In some languages, it may be helpful to explain the metaphor of the speck and plank in a footnote. For example:

The speck represents small sins and faults. The plank represents large sins and faults.

© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.