Matthew 7:24

ὁμοιώσω, the reading of textus receptus for ὁμοιωθήσεται, has considerable, but not the most ancient evidence to support it. The variation from the passive ὁμοιωθήσεται, Matthew 7:26, has some point. Christ Himself sanctions the first part of the comparison, but leaves the other as a generally accepted and obvious fact without any special sanction on his part. See Jebb, Sacr. Lit. p. 217.

24. πᾶς ὅστις�. Cp. Matthew 7:26, every one that heareth. Both classes of men hear the word. So far they are alike. Moreover the two houses have externally the same appearance. The great day of trial shews the difference. The imagery is from a mountain-country where the torrent-beds, sometimes more than half a mile in width in the plain below the mountain, are dry in summer, and present a level waste of sand and stones. We may picture the foolish man building on this sandy bottom, while the wise or prudent man builds on a rock planted on the shore, or rising out of the river-bed, too high to be affected by the rush of waters. In the autumn the torrents stream down, filling the sandy channel and carrying all before them. For the spiritual sense of the parable see 1 Corinthians 3:10 foll.

The effect of the two pictures is heightened by the poetical form. Observe the three long slow lines that describe the building of the houses succeeded by the brief vivid sentences that recall the beating of a fierce tropical tempest, and then the lasting result when the tempest passes away described by another long line.
The points of similarity in the two descriptions give prominence to the points of difference. ἄμμον and πέτραν are contrasted in the third line of each stanza. But the fatal and infinite distinction is reserved for the close. Like line and like condition succeed each other in the parallel images, and all seems safe and well for each alike until the fatal last line falls on heart and ear with a crash.