This verse forms a parallel to verse 26.

What I tell you may be “the things I am telling you.”

Dark may be “in secret” or “in private.” To say “in the night” would probably not reflect the meaning of Jesus here.

Light is translated “broad daylight” by Good News Translation and New English Bible, while New Jerusalem Bible has “daylight.” Light can also be understood to mean “publicly,” “where everyone can hear you.”

The order of the sentence may have to be reversed, as in “You must repeat in daylight (or, in public) the things I am telling you privately.”

What you hear whispered is literally “what you hear in the ears”; Good News Translation has “what you have heard in private.” To avoid a passive sentence, this sentence can also be rendered “what I have told you in private” or “what things we have talked about just among us.”

The (flat) housetops were frequently used as a place from which public announcements were made, and so the contrast in this part of the verse is also evident. What Jesus tells his disciples in private is to be made known in the most public way possible. Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition translates “and what is whispered in your ears, you must make known to all the world.” Another possible model is “… you must announce to all the world.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .