Ye pay tithe, &c.— 5. The fifth woe is denounced for their superstition. They observed the ceremonial precepts of the law with all possible exactness, while they utterly neglected the eternal, immutable, and indispensable rules of righteousness,—justice, mercy, or charity, and fidelity. Besides the reproof of their superstition in the performance of positive duties, our Saviour condemned it also in the obedience which they gave to the negative precepts of the law; for there likewise this evil root shewed itself, Matthew 23:24. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat,—or rather, who strain out a gnat, (namely, from your drink,) and swallow a camel. The expression is proverbial, and was made use of by our Lord on this occasion to signify, that the Pharisees pretended to be exceedingly afraid of the smallest faults, as if sin had been bitter to them like death, while they indulged themselves secretly in the unrestrainedcommissionofthegrossestimmoralities.Serrariusobserves,thatinthose hot countries gnats were apt to fall into wine, if it were not carefully covered; and passing the liquor through a strainer, that no gnat or part of one might remain, grew into a proverb for exactness about little matters. See Wetstein. "Could any authority be produced, in which Καμηλον signifies a large insect, Iwould with great pleasure (says Dr. Doddridge) follow the translation of 1729, in rendering the latter clause, swallow a beetle." See on Chap. Matthew 19:24.
Related Commentaries of Matthew 23:23
Matthew 23:23-24
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anisec and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.