Jesus ridicules Pharisaic priorities with a memorable image: 'You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!' (Matthew 23:24). The gnat represents the smallest, most insignificant creature—something one might carefully filter from drinking water to avoid uncleanness. The absurdity is that while meticulously straining out tiny gnats, they gulp down entire camels (the largest unclean animal). The hyperbole exposes inverted values: obsessing over minutiae while ignoring massive moral failures. Both animals are unclean, but the disproportion is comic and damning.