in darknesse] What I teach you in private when others are absent, as they use to be in the night: Therefore he addes, in the ear, to shew that he spake of private instruction. upon the house tops] Openly, and in the highest places. For they could walk on their house tops, Deuteronomy 22:8. Matthew 24:17. Acts 10:9. and from thence publish things to multitudes belowe.