5 so also the tongue is a little member, and doth boast greatly; lo, a little fire how much wood it doth kindle!
And they bend their tongue, their bow `is' a lie, And not for stedfastness have they been mighty in the land, For from evil unto evil they have gone forth, And Me they have not known, An affirmation of Jehovah! Each of his friend -- beware ye, And on any brother, do not trust, For every brother doth utterly supplant, For every friend slanderously doth walk, And each at his friend they mock, And truth they do not speak, They taught their tongue to speak falsehood, To commit iniquity they have laboured. thy dwelling `is' in the midst of deceit, Through deceit they refused to know Me, An affirmation of Jehovah. Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Lo, I am refining them, and have tried them, For how do I do because of the daughter of My people? A slaughtering arrow `is' their tongue, Deceit it hath spoken in its mouth, Peace with its neighbour it speaketh, And in its heart it layeth its ambush,
Their fat they have closed up, Their mouths have spoken with pride:
To the Overseer. -- An instruction, by David, in the coming in of Doeg the Edomite, and he declareth to Saul, and saith to him, `David came in unto the house of Ahimelech.' What, boasteth thou in evil, O mighty one? The kindness of God `is' all the day. Mischiefs doth thy tongue devise, Like a sharp razor, working deceit.
Vanity they speak each with his neighbour, Lip of flattery! With heart and heart they speak. Jehovah doth cut off all lips of flattery, A tongue speaking great things, Who said, `By our tongue we do mightily: Our lips `are' our own; who `is' lord over us?'
`Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because thy heart hath been high, And thou dost say: A god I `am', The habitation of God I have inhabited, In the heart of the seas, And thou `art' man, and not God, And thou givest out thy heart as the heart of God,
And they say, Come, And we devise against Jeremiah devices, For law doth not perish from the priest, Nor counsel from the wise, Nor the word from the prophet, Come, and we smite him with the tongue, And we do not attend to any of his words.
Death and life `are' in the power of the tongue, And those loving it eat its fruit.
A rash speaker is like piercings of a sword, And the tongue of the wise is healing.
Because the wicked hath boasted Of the desire of his soul, And a dishonest gainer he hath blessed, He hath despised Jehovah.
And there was given to it a mouth speaking great things, and evil-speakings, and there was given to it authority to make war forty-two months, and it did open its mouth for evil-speaking toward God, to speak evil of His name, and of His tabernacle, and of those who in the heaven tabernacle,
These are murmurers, repiners; according to their desires walking, and their mouth doth speak great swellings, giving admiration to persons for the sake of profit;
The enemy said, I pursue, I overtake; I apportion spoil; Filled is my soul with them; I draw out my sword; My hand destroyeth them: --
the king hath answered and said, Is not this that great Babylon that I have built, for the house of the kingdom, in the might of my strength, and for the glory of mine honour?
Now, lo, ye are ready, so that at the time that ye hear the voice of the cornet, the flute, the harp, the sackbut, the psaltery, and the symphony, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and do obeisance to the image that I have made! -- and lo, ye do no obeisance -- in that hour ye are cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; who is that God who doth deliver you out of my hands?'
And they say to God, `Turn aside from us, And the knowledge of Thy ways We have not desired. What `is' the Mighty One that we serve Him? And what do we profit when we meet with Him?'
Whom hast thou reproached and reviled? And against whom lifted up a voice? Yea, thou dost lift up on high thine eyes -- Against the Holy One of Israel! By the hand of thy messengers Thou hast reproached the Lord, and sayest: In the multitude of my chariots I have come up to a high place of mountains -- The sides of Lebanon, And I cut down the height of its cedars, The choice of its firs, And I enter the lodging of its extremity, The forest of its Carmel. I have digged, and drunk strange waters, And I dry up with the sole of my steps All floods of a bulwark.
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.