Matthew 7:6-8 New English Translation

⁶Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces.^[a]

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁷“Ask^[b] and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door^[c] will be opened for you. ⁸For everyone who asks^[d] receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Matthew 7:6 tn Or “otherwise the latter will trample them under their feet and the former will turn around and tear you to pieces.” This verse is sometimes understood as a chiasm of the pattern a-b-b-a, in which the first and last clauses belong together (“dogs…turn around and tear you to pieces”) and the second and third clauses belong together (“pigs…trample them under their feet”).
Matthew 7:7 tn The three present imperatives in this verse are best viewed as iterative (Wallace, ExSyn 722, lists the verse as an example of this usage), calling for repeated action.sn Many interpreters see the three present imperatives (Ask…seek…knock) as mainly limited to persistence in prayer (cf. v. 11), though others see them referring more generally to taking the initiative with God in various ways.
Matthew 7:7 tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation here and in v. 8 for clarity.
Matthew 7:8 sn The actions of asking, seeking, and knocking are repeated here from v. 7 with the additional encouragement that God does respond to such requests/actions.

New English Translation (NET)