You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
This proverb cuts exactly: the hypocrites shrink from the tiniest faults as if they were unspeakable horrors, yet permit themselves and others to commit the vilest crimes. They act as absurdly as a man straining out a crumb while swallowing a loaf whole.
AI summary
They scrub the outside of the cup and platter with scrupulous care, yet the food within comes from extortion and rapine, gotten by devouring widows' houses and squeezing the poor. Outwardly washed; inwardly unclean and full of theft.
AI summary
The proverb is sharp: you Jews take pains to strain out the tiniest insect from your drink, observing the smallest points superstitiously, yet ignore great sins, hypocrisy, deceit, oppression, lust. You worry over gnats and swallow camels whole.
AI summary