Gr. dokos, a “log,” or “plank,” a piece of timber used in the construction of a house.

Gr. karphos, a mere “chip,” or “splinter,” of dried wood, chaff, etc. In the eye this would be a most irritating particle, however small its size. The “mote” represents, of course, the lesser fault. The censorious man always readily detects any fault, however small, in another man.

 Compare Luke 6:41. Our proverb, “Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones,” has a similar import. There is also an Arabic proverb that runs, “How seest thou the splinter in thy brother’s eye, and seest not the cross-beam in thine eye?”