Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
That which is holy unto the dogs (to agion toiv kusin). It is not clear to what "the holy" refers, to ear-rings or to amulets, but that would not appeal to dogs. Trench (Sermon on the Mount, p. 136) says that the reference is to meat offered in sacrifice that must not be flung to dogs: "It is not that the dogs would not eat it, for it would be welcome to them; but that it would be a profanation to give it to them, thus to make it a skubalon, Exodus 22:31." The yelping dogs would jump at it. Dogs are kin to wolves and infest the streets of oriental cities.
Your pearls before the swine (touv margaritav umwn emprosqen twn xoirwn). The word pearl we have in the name Margarita (Margaret). Pearls look a bit like peas or acorns and would deceive the hogs until they discovered the deception. The wild boars haunt the Jordan Valley still and are not far removed from bears as they trample with their feet and rend with their tusks those who have angered them.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Matthew 7:6:
1 Timothy 2:9
Revelation 17:4
Revelation 21:21
Revelation 22:15
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