“cast pearls before swine”

The saying

Matthew 7:6 (BSB):

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

The verse uses two animals — kynes (dogs) and choiroi (pigs) — that were both terms of contempt in first-century Jewish discourse. Dogs in the ancient Mediterranean were typically scavengers, not pets; “dog” was an insult in many contexts. Pigs were ritually unclean under the Mosaic law (Leviticus 11:7) and carried even stronger negative connotations in Jewish culture. The pairing intensifies.

Why it sits where it does

Matthew 7:6 follows directly after Matthew 7:1-5 — the “judge not” passage. The juxtaposition is striking and often missed:

1 Do not judge, or you will be judged. 2 For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged… 3 Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? … 5 …First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 6 Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.

The two passages together are doing more nuanced work than either alone:

• vv. 1-5 — Do not judge to condemn. Address your own faults before pointing at others’. This is read by some as a wholesale prohibition on any kind of evaluation.
• v. 6 — But also know who not to give sacred things to. This requires discernment — a form of judgment, but a different kind.

Read together, the unit is not “don’t judge” full stop, nor “judge freely.” It is closer to: don’t judge to condemn; do exercise discernment about what you share with whom.

For the broader entry on judging, see our ‘judge not’ confused entry.

What “what is sacred” and “pearls” name

The Greek for “what is sacred” is to hagion — the holy thing. The word was used for sacrificial meat, temple offerings, things designated for sacred use. To give to hagion to dogs was a category violation — taking what was set apart for God and giving it to scavengers.

Pearls (margaritas) were among the most valuable items in the ancient Mediterranean. Roman literature records pearls of extraordinary value (Pliny the Elder describes Cleopatra’s pearl). Throwing them to pigs would be a category violation in a different way — taking what is precious and giving it to creatures with no capacity to value it.

The two images intensify each other. The point is not animal cruelty or social hierarchy; it is the importance of recognising what receives what.

What the verse does and does not say

The verse:

• Uses culturally-loaded vocabulary deliberately
• Sits intentionally beside “judge not”
• Implies discernment as a complement to non-condemnation

The verse does not:

• Specify who the “dogs” and “swine” are. The text gives the principle without identifying the parties.
• License treating any specific group as “swine.” Christian interpretive history has applied the verse in many ways — to non-believers, to opponents, to particular categories of people. Each application is interpretive; the text gives the principle.

We document what the verse says and where it sits. The application is the reader’s.