James Chapter 3 verse 5 Holy Bible

ASV James 3:5

So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire!
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BBE James 3:5

Even so the tongue is a small part of the body, but it takes credit for great things. How much wood may be lighted by a very little fire!
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DARBY James 3:5

Thus also the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. See how little a fire, how large a wood it kindles!
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KJV James 3:5

Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
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WBT James 3:5


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WEB James 3:5

So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!
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YLT James 3:5

so also the tongue is a little member, and doth boast greatly; lo, a little fire how much wood it doth kindle!
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - (1) Application, of illustration. The tongue is only a little member, but it boasts great things. The true reading appears to be μεγάλα αὐχεῖ (A, B, C). The compound verb of the Textus Receptus, μεγαλαυχεῖν, is found in the LXX. (Ezekiel 16:50; Zephaniah 3:11; 2 Macc. 15:32; Ecclus. 48:18). (2) Third illustration. A very small fire may kindle a very large forest. Ἡλίκον (א, A2, B, C1, Vulgate) should be read instead of ὀλίγον (A1, C2, K, L, ff). It is equivalent to quantulus as well as quantus. A somewhat similar thought to the one before us is found in Ecclus. 11:32, "Of a spark of fire a heap of coals is kindled." Υλη "Matter," A.V.; "wood," R.V. The word is only found here in the New Testament. In the LXX. it is used for a "matter" of judgment in Job 19:29; "matter" in the philosophical sense in Wisd. 11:18. (cf. 15:13); the "matter" of a book in 2 Macc. 2:24; the "matter" of a fire in Ecclus. 28:10 (the whole passage, vers. 8-12, is wroth comparing with the one before us); and for "forest" in Job 38:40; Isaiah 10:17. It is most natural to take it in this sense here (so Syriac and Vulgate, silva). "The literal meaning is certainly to be preferred to the philosophical" (Lightfoot on Revision, p. 140). Forest fires are frequently referred to by the ancients. Virgil's description of one ('Georgies,' 2:303) is well known; so also Homer's ('Iliad,' 11:155).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(5) Even so . . .--Thus, like the tiny rudder of the mighty ship, whereon its course most critically depends--the tongue is a little member; for it "vaunts great words which bring about great acts of mischief." The verb translated boasteth is peculiar to this place, but occurs so often in the works of Philo that we may be almost certain St. James had read them. And many other verses of our Epistle suggests his knowledge of this famous Alexandrian Jew.Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!--It would be more in the spirit and temper of this imaginative passage to render it, "Behold, how great a forest a little spark kindleth!" Thus it is expressed in the Latin Vulgate; and note our own margin, "wood." The image constantly recurs in poetry, ancient and modern; and in the writer's mind there seems to have been the picture "of the wrapping of some vast forest in a flame, by the falling of a single spark," and this in illustration of the far-reaching mischief resulting from a single cause. (Comp. Ecclesiasticus 28:10.)