9 With it we give praise to our Lord and Father; and with it we put a curse on men who are made in God's image.
For it is not right for a man to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
Then with curses and oaths he said, I have no knowledge of the man. And straight away there came the cry of a cock.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, like us: and let him have rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every living thing which goes flat on the earth. And God made man in his image, in the image of God he made him: male and female he made them.
And for this cause my heart was glad and my tongue full of joy, and my flesh will be resting in hope:
Your heart has knowledge how frequently others have been cursed by you.
So will I go on blessing you all my life, lifting up my hands in your name.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through his great mercy has given us a new birth and a living hope by the coming again of Jesus Christ from the dead,
But I say to you, Have love for those who are against you, and make prayer for those who are cruel to you;
<A Song of praise. Of David.> Let me give glory to you, O God, my King; and blessing to your name for ever and ever.
As he took pleasure in cursing, so let it come on him; and as he had no delight in blessing, let it be far from him. He put on cursing like a robe, and it has come into his body like water, and into his bones like oil.
My tongue will be talking of your righteousness all the day; for those whose purpose is to do me evil have been crushed and put to shame.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God made man, he made him in the image of God;
Because of the sin of their mouths and the word of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride; and for their curses and their deceit,
You are my glory; let the instruments of music be awake; I myself will be awake with the dawn.
And my tongue will be talking of your righteousness and of your praise all the day.
<Of David. When he made a change in his behaviour before Abimelech, who sent him away, and he went.> I will be blessing the Lord at all times; his praise will be ever in my mouth.
Because of this my heart is glad, and my glory is full of joy: while my flesh takes its rest in hope.
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and false words: under his tongue are evil purposes and dark thoughts.
So David gave praise to the Lord before all the people; and David said, Praise be to you, O Lord the God of Israel, our father for ever and ever.
But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said, Is not death the right fate for Shimei, because he has been cursing the one marked by the holy oil?
And they went out into their fields and got in the fruit of their vines, and when the grapes had been crushed, they made a holy feast and went into the house of their god, and over their food and drink they were cursing Abimelech.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on James 3
Commentary on James 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
The apostle here reproves ambition, and an arrogant magisterial tongue; and shows the duty and advantage of bridling it because of its power to do mischief. Those who profess religion ought especially to govern their tongues (v. 1-12). True wisdom makes men meek, and avoiders of strife and envy: and hereby it may easily be distinguished from a wisdom that is earthly and hypocritical (v. 13-18).
Jam 3:1-12
The foregoing chapter shows how unprofitable and dead faith is without works. It is plainly intimated by what this chapter first goes upon that such a faith is, however, apt to make men conceited and magisterial in their tempers and their talk. Those who set up faith in the manner the former chapter condemns are most apt to run into those sins of the tongue which this chapter condemns. And indeed the best need to be cautioned against a dictating, censorious, mischievous use of their tongues. We are therefore taught,
Jam 3:13-18
As the sins before condemned arise from an affectation of being thought more wise than others, and being endued with more knowledge than they, so the apostle in these verses shows the difference between men's pretending to be wise and their being really so, and between the wisdom which is from beneath (from earth or hell) and that which is from above.