Matthew 23:24

“You blind guides, who strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel!”

He summarises their position by a huge contrast. The gnat (qamla) was one of the smallest of creatures, the camel (gamla) the largest in Palestine. Note the play on words in the Aramaic. They are so one-sided in vision spiritually that when they see that a gnat (qamla) has fallen into their drink they carefully strain it out in order not to partake of an ‘unclean' creeping thing, but when a camel (gamla) falls into the drink (equally ‘unclean') they swallow it down without even noticing it. The point is that they are such blind guides that they concentrate on dealing with the small things with great care, and practically ignore the big things altogether, without bothering to consider them. They spend hours splitting their dill and cummin into tenths and nine tenths, and ensuring that they have missed none, and even include mint which was not necessarily titheable, and yet they pass over justice, mercy and faithfulness as though they did not matter. They are too busy with the intricate details to spend much time on large matters.

Note that in the fourth blessing (Matthew 5:6) the blessed are to be filled with righteousness, which they hunger and thirst after. But these, while avoiding an unclean gnat, will be filled with an unclean camel which they did not even notice!