<p>7:14 <em>And again he called to him the crowd, and said to them: Hear me all of you, and understand</em>- His previous teaching in this chapter was therefore given to the &ldquo;scribes and Pharisees&rdquo; in a private audience, so Matthew implies. The Lord was speaking specifically to the crowd, without the presence of the disciples, who only later came to Him (:12). The Greek words for &ldquo;hear and understand&rdquo; were repeatedly used by the Lord in Mt. 13:13,14,15,19. There He had explained to the disciples that the crowds did&nbsp;<em>not</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>could not</em>&nbsp;&ldquo;hear and understand&rdquo;, and therefore He was confusing them by parables; only the disciples heard and understood. But here, hoping against hope, the Lord makes a desperate appeal to the crowds to hear and understand. Such is His hopefulness that He was unashamed to depart from a declared position about people, and hope that they might somehow respond. We are left to imagine the tone of desperate pleading in His voice as He appealed for them to &ldquo;hear and understand&rdquo; in the light of how He had used those words about the crowds in Mt. 13. In the same spirit, Paul turned to the Gentiles- and yet continued by all means trying to persuade the Jews.</p>