отделить овец от козлищ

• ОТДЕЛЯТЬ/ОТДЕЛЯТЬ ОВЕЦ ОТ КОЗЛИЩ lit

[VP; subj: human; usu. this WO]

=====

⇒ to separate the good from the bad, the useful from the harmful (may refer to people):

- separate the sheep from the goats;

- make a distinction between the sheep and the goats.

     ♦ ...Именно люди двадцатых годов начали аккуратно отделять овец от козлищ, своих от чужих, сторонников "нового" от тех, кто ещё не забыл самых примитивных правил общежития (Мандельштам 1). It was the people of the twenties who first began to make a neat distinction between the sheep and the goats, between "us" and "them," between upholders of the "new" and those still mindful of the basic rules that governed human relations in the past (1a).

—————

← From the Bible (Matt. 25:32).