Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 7:2
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
2. judgment ] The same Greek word is used Rom 2:2-3 of the divine sentence or decision: see that passage and context which are closely parallel to these verses: cp. also Mar 12:40, where the same word is translated “damnation.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
With what judgment … – This was a proverb among the Jews. It expressed a truth; and Christ did not hesitate to adopt it as conveying his own sentiments. It refers no less to the way in which people will judge of us, than to the rule by which God will judge us. See 2Sa 22:27; Mar 4:24; Jam 2:13.
Mete – Measure. You shall be judged by the same rule which you apply to others.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. For with what judgment] He who is severe on others will naturally excite their severity against himself. The censures and calumnies which we have suffered are probably the just reward of those which we have dealt out to others.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
2. For with what judgments ye judge,ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye metewhateverstandard of judgment ye apply to others.
it shall be measured to youagainThis proverbial maxim is used by our Lord in otherconnectionsas in Mr 4:24,and with a slightly different application in Lu6:38 as a great principle in the divine administration. Unkindjudgment of others will be judicially returned upon ourselves, in theday when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. But, asin many other cases under the divine administration, such harshjudgment gets self-punished even here. For people shrink from contactwith those who systematically deal out harsh judgment uponothersnaturally concluding that they themselves may be the nextvictimsand feel impelled in self-defense, when exposed to it, toroll back upon the assailant his own censures.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged,…. Both by God and men; to which agree those proverbial sentences used by the Jews;
“He that judgeth his neighbour according to the balance of righteousness, or innocence, they judge him according to righteousness.”
w And a little after,
“As ye have judged me according to the balance of righteousness, God will judge you according to the balance of righteousness.”
Hence that advice of Joshua ben Perachiah x, who, by the Jewish writers, is said to be the master of Christ;
“Judge every man according to the balance of righteousness.”
Which their commentators explain thus y; when you see a man as it were in “equilibrio”, inclining to neither part, it is not clear from what he does, that he is either good or evil, righteous or unrighteous; yet when you see him do a thing which may be interpreted either to a good or a bad sense, it ought always to be interpreted to the best.
And with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. This was an usual proverb among the Jews; it is sometimes delivered out thus, , “measure against measure” z; but oftener thus, and nearer the form of it here, , “with what measure a man measures, they measure to him”: one might fill up almost a page, in referring to places, where it is used in this form: besides those in the a margin, take the following, and the rather, because it gives instances of this retaliation b:
“”With what measure a man measures, they measure to him”; so the woman suspected of adultery, she adorned herself to commit sin, and God dishonoured her; she exposed herself to iniquity, God therefore stripped her naked; the same part of her body in which her sin begun, her punishment did. Samson walked after his eyes, and therefore the Philistines plucked out his eyes. Absalom was lifted up in his mind, with his hair, and therefore he was hanged by it; and because he lay with his father’s ten concubines, they therefore pierced him with ten lances; and because he stole away three hearts, the heart of his father, the heart of the sanhedrim, and the heart of Israel, therefore he was thrust with three darts: and so it is with respect to good things; Miriam waited for Moses one hour, therefore the Israelites waited for her seven days in the wilderness; Joseph, who was greater than his brethren, buried his father; and Moses, who was the greatest among the Israelites took care of the bones of Joseph, and God himself buried Moses.”
w T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 127. 2. x Pirke Abot, c. 1. sect. 6. y Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. z Bereshit Rabba, sect. 9. fol. 7. 4. a T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 12. 2. Sota, fol. 8. 2. Sanhedrim, fol. 100. 1. Zohar in Gen. fol. 87. 4. & in Lev. fol. 36. 1. & 39. 3. & in Num. fol. 67. 3. Bemidbar Rabba, fol. 194. 1. Misn. Beracot, c. 9. sect. 5. b Misn. Sota, c. 1. sect. 7, 8, 9. Vid. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 99. 1, 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “For with what judgment ye judge,” (en ho gar krimati krinete) “Because with that (kind of) judgment you judge;” This is an high moral and ethical principal, evident among the civilized and uncivilized around the world, and our Lord would have His disciples respect it in prominent practice of daily conversation, Mat 12:36-37; Luk 6:37.
2) “Ye shall be judged:” (krithesesthe) “You all shall be judged;” Even in forming and expressing judgment, things produce “after his kind;” Criticism genders its kind; Injustice incites returned injustice; Foolish words to harm motivate reactive words to harm, 1Co 5:12; Luk 6:37-38.
3) “And with what measure ye mete,” (kai en ho metro metreite) “And with that or whatever kind of measure you all measure;” Whatever kind of measure you put to others will be put to you; the same standard will be required of you by others; Mr 4:24; Rom 14:3-4; Rom 14:10; Rom 14:13; 1Co 4:3-5.
4) “It shall be measured to you again.” (methethesetai humin) “it shall be measured to you all,” measured back to you, in return, Jas 2:13; Jas 4:11-12.
IT COMES BACK TO YOU
A little boy once went home to his mother and said, “Mother, sister and I went out into the garden, and we were calling out, and there was some boy mocking us.” “How do you mean, Johnny?”‘ said his mother. “Why,” said the child, “I was calling out, ‘Ho! and this boy said, ‘Ho! So I said to him, ‘Who are you?’ and he answered, ‘Who are you?’ I said, ‘What is your name?’ he said, ‘What is your name?’ And I said to him, ‘Why don’t you show yourself he said, ‘Show yourself And I jumped over the ditch, and went into the woods, and I could not find him, and I came back, and said, ‘If you don’t come out I will beat you and he said, ‘I will beat you!’ ” So his mother said, ‘Ah, Johnny, if you had said, ‘I love you,’ he would have said, ‘I love you.’ If you had said, ‘Your voice is sweet,’ he would have, said, ‘Your voice is sweet.’ “Whatever you said to him, he would have said back to you.” And the mother also said, “Now, Johnny, when you grow and get to be a man, whatever you say to others they will by and by, say back to you.” And his mother took him to that old text in the Scripture, “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.—Sel.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(2) With what judgment ye judge. . . .Here again truth takes the form of a seeming paradox. The unjust judgment of man does not bring upon us a divine judgment which is also unjust; but the severity which we have unjustly meted out to others, becomes, by a retributive law, the measure of that which is justly dealt out to us.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Ye shall be judged We must take care that our judgments will stand this test, and all is right. With what measure ye mete Our Lord here states the divine penalty for this unholy judging. It is the divine retribution symbolically stated in the terms of the law of retaliation, like for like. The unjust judge shall be paid off in unjust judgment. To the froward God will prove himself froward. Psa 18:26. The sentiment literally is, The wicked estimator shall be judged according to his evil action.
Mat 7:2 . ] Instrumental repetition of the same thought: Sota , ed. Wagenseil, p. 52. Comp. Schoettgen, p. 78. The second is also instrumental, by means of , and is to be understood as a measure of capacity (Luk 6:38 ).
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Ver. 2. For with what judgment ye judge, &c. ] Our Saviour sets forth what he had said before by these two proverbial sentences, as well known among them as those among us: “Ye shall sow as ye reap, drink as ye brew, be served with the same sauce,” &c. a Compare herewith those divine proverbs,Isa 33:1Isa 33:1 ; Pro 12:14 ; Pro 13:2 ; Pro 13:21 ; Pro 14:14 ; Pro 14:22 ; Pro 22:8 ; Job 6:8 ; Mar 6:24 . God delights to give men their own, as good as they brought, to pay them home in their own coin, or, as the text here and the Hebrew proverb hath it, to remit to them in their own measure, b Isa 3:10-11 ; with the merciful to show himself merciful, and with the froward to wrestle. He will be as froward as they for the hearts of them, beat them with their own weapons, overshoot them in their own bows, shape their estates according to their own patterns, and cause others to write after their copies, as it fared with Pharaoh, Adonibezek, Agag, &c. Sodom sinned in fulness of bread, and it is expressly noted that their victuals were taken from them by the four kings, Gen 14:11 . Their eyes were full of uncleanness, and they were smitten with blindness; they burned with lust, and were burned with fire; they sinned against nature, and against the course of nature, fire descends and consumes them. Eglon, stabbed into the guts, finds his bane the same way with his sin. Sisera annoys God’s people with his iron chariots, and is slain by a nail of iron. Jezebel’s brains, that devised mischief against the innocent, are strewed upon the stones; by a letter to Jezreel she shed the blood of Naboth, and by a letter from Jezreel the blood of her sons is shed. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomen’s temple (that seven years’ work of so many thousands), therefore let him be turned a grazing, and seven seasons pass over him, saith the oracle,Dan 4:16Dan 4:16 . The blasphemers in the Revelation “gnaw their tongues” through pain, and Dives (for like cause) was tormented in that part chiefly. c Apion scoffing at religion, and especially at circumcision, had an ulcer at the same time and in the same place. Phocas, a wild, drunken, bloody, adulterous tyrant, was worthily slaughtered by Heraclius, who cut off his hands and feet, and then his genitals by piecemeal. The Donatists, that cast the holy elements in the Lord’s supper to dogs, were themselves afterward devoured of dogs. John Martin of Briqueras, a mile from Angrogne, vaunted everywhere that he would slit the minister’s nose of Angrogne, but was himself assaulted by a wolf, which bit off his nose, whereof he died mad. Sir Ralph Elerker, Knight Marshal of Calais, in Queen Mary’s reign, being present at the death of Adam Damlip, martyr, bid the executioner despatch, saying that he would not away till he saw the traitor’s heart out. Shortly after this Sir Ralph was slain, among others, in a skirmish at Bullein, and his heart cut out of his body by the enemies, -a terrible example to all merciless and bloody men, &c.; for no cause was known why they should use such indignation against him more than the rest, but that it is written, “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Bishop Ridley told Stephen Winchester that it was the hand of God that he was now in prison, because he had so troubled others in his time. And as he had inflamed so many good martyrs, so he died miserably of an inflammation, that caused him to thrust out his tongue all swollen and black, as Archbishop Arundel had died before him. The Archbishop of Tours made suit for the erection of a court, called Chambre Ardent, wherein to condenm the Protestants to the fire. He was afterwards stricken with a disease called “the fire of God,” which began at his feet, and so ascended upward, that he caused one member after another to be cut off, and so died miserably. And there is mention made of one Christopher, an unmerciful courtier, who suffering a poor lazar d to die in a ditch by him, did afterwards perish himself in a ditch. To return to the present purpose: Laurentius Valla censured all that wrote before him; Erasmus comes after, and censures him as much; Beza finds as many faults with Erasmus, and not without cause, as appeareth by that one passage among many in his annotations on Rom 7:21 ; “I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me;” Erasmus Originem secutus, scripsit Paulum hoc Sermone balbutire, quum ipse potius ineptiat. Scaliger the hypercritic gives this absurd and unmannerly censure: Gothi belluae, Scoti non minus. Angli perfidi, inflati, feri, contemptores, stolidi, amentes, inertes, inhospitales, immanes. The Goths are beasts, so are the Scots. Englishmen are perfidious, proud, fierce, foolish, mad men, slow bellies, inhospitable, barbarous. Another comes after him, and saith, His bolt, you see, is soon shot, and so you may happily guess at the quality of the archer. Tacitus speaks reproachfully of both Jews and Christians; and is paid his own as well, both by Tertullian and Lipsius. e If men suffer in their good names, they may thank themselves, mostly. Contempt is a thing that man’s nature is most impatient of. Those that are given to slight and censure others, are punished with the common hatred of all. Imitation and retaliation are in all men naturally, as we may see in every child. And that of Solomon is in this sense found most rule, “As in water face answereth to face; so doth the heart of a man to a man.” None are so shunned and censured as those that are most censorious. The places they live in groan for a vomit to spew them out.
a , Mat 7:2 , est rigor iuris moderationi et mitigationi oppositus. Aret.
b See also Rev 13:10 ; Rev 18:6 ; Middah cenegedh middah. Psa 18:26 .
c Quia lingua plus peccaverat.
d A poor and diseased person, usually one afflicted with a loathsome disease; esp. a leper. D
e Taciturn Lipsius immemorem, secumque pugnantem; Tertullianus mendaciorum loquacissimum appellat.
2. ] , not instrumental, but of the sphere in which the act takes place, i.e. in this case, the measure, according to which: as in ref. 2 Cor., .
Mat 7:2 . , etc.: Vulgatissimum hoc apud Judaeos adagium, says Lightfoot (Hor. Heb.). Of course; one would expect such maxims, based on experience, to be current among all peoples ( vide Grotius for examples). It is the lex talionis in a new form: character for character . Jesus may have learned some of these moral adages at school in Nazareth, as we have all when boys learned many good things out of our lesson books with their collections of extracts. The point to notice is what the mind of Jesus assimilated the best in the wisdom of His people and the emphasis with which He inculcated the best, so as to ensure for it permanent lodgment in the minds of His disciples and in their records of His teaching.
with what, &c. Figure of speech Paroemia. App-6.
again. All the critical texts omit. App-94.
2.] , not instrumental, but of the sphere in which the act takes place, i.e. in this case, the measure, according to which: as in ref. 2 Cor., .
Mat 7:2. , with what measure) The principle of the lex talionis.[301]
[301] So it is not hard to judge, what retribution hereafter each one is likely to have.-V. g.
Jdg 1:7, Psa 18:25, Psa 18:26, Psa 137:7, Psa 137:8, Jer 51:24, Oba 1:15, Mar 4:24, Luk 6:38, 2Co 9:6, 2Th 1:6, 2Th 1:7, Jam 2:13, Rev 18:6
Reciprocal: Gen 19:36 – General Gen 29:25 – wherefore Gen 42:21 – we saw Gen 44:16 – God hath Exo 4:9 – blood Exo 14:26 – the waters Exo 21:24 – General Lev 19:35 – in meteyard Lev 24:19 – General Jdg 5:27 – where Jdg 9:23 – dealt Jdg 9:56 – God rendered 1Sa 11:11 – slew 1Sa 15:33 – As thy sword 1Sa 26:24 – as thy life 2Sa 1:10 – slew 2Sa 4:12 – slew them 2Sa 21:5 – The man 1Ki 21:19 – In the place 2Ki 11:16 – there was she slain 2Ch 16:12 – diseased 2Ch 23:15 – they slew her there 2Ch 28:10 – not with 2Ch 28:11 – the fierce Job 19:29 – that ye may Psa 109:17 – General Pro 21:13 – at Isa 33:1 – when thou shalt cease Isa 47:6 – thou didst Jer 34:17 – behold Jer 48:27 – was not Jer 48:42 – from Jer 50:15 – as she Jer 51:35 – The violence Jer 51:49 – As Babylon Eze 7:27 – according to their deserts Eze 16:59 – I will Eze 24:4 – General Eze 24:8 – I have set Eze 31:11 – he shall surely deal with him Eze 35:6 – I will Eze 35:11 – I will even Eze 39:10 – shall spoil Dan 11:18 – he shall cause Joe 3:7 – and will Mat 6:14 – General Mat 18:35 – do Rom 14:3 – judge 1Co 4:5 – judge Jam 3:1 – condemnation Jam 4:11 – and judgeth Jam 5:9 – lest Rev 11:9 – and shall not Rev 13:10 – that leadeth Rev 16:6 – they have
7:2
With the first verse explained this one should not be difficult. If a man passes unrighteous judgment upon another he lays himself open to condemnation. In other words, if a man condemns another without evidence, it will indicate that he is himself the guilty one and is trying to divert attention from himself to another.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
[With what measure ye mete.] This is a very common proverb among the Jews: In the measure that a man measureth, others measure to him. See also the tract Sotah; where it is illustrated by various examples.
Mat 7:2. For with what judgment, etc. Literally, in what judgment; the measure according to which Gods judgment will take place, namely, our own severe judgment. The second clause repeats the same idea, making it more general.
Verse 2
With what judgment ye judge, &c., that is, the calumniator will be calumniated; he who unjustly condemns others, must expect to be himself condemned.
The thought here is similar to that in Mat 6:14-15. The person who judges others very critically will experience a similarly rigorous examination from God (cf. Mat 18:23-35). There is a word play in the verse in the Greek text that suggests Jesus may have been quoting a popular proverb. [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 184.]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)