cast the first stone

Idioms  

1. Also, throw the first stone. Be quick to blame, criticize, or punish, as in She's always criticizing her colleagues, casting the first stone no matter what the circumstances. The term comes from the New Testament (John 8:7), where Jesus defends an adulteress against those who would stone her, saying “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Also see people who live in glass houses; pot calling the kettle black.

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Example Sentences

Let she who has never wished to eat her offspring cast the first stone.

From Salon • May 11, 2025

Then, once you’re back, if you have never called a significant other something saccharine and humiliating, feel free to cast the first stone.

From Slate • Aug. 15, 2018

How the enemy can tear down our community and rewrite the history by highlighting our flaws.But let he who cast the first stone, who constitutes the new laws.Nah,

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 25, 2016

She’s sending a message: Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

From New York Times • Nov. 8, 2015

“Let him that is without sin, cast the first stone at her.”

From A Vindication of the Seventh-Day Sabbath and the Commandments of God With a Further History of God's Peculiar People from 1847-1848 by Bates, Joseph