James 3:5 — KJV with Strong's Concordance

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Chapter 3

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

James 3:5 —

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Original word meaning

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Cross-References

From the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Jeremiah 9:3-8
And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD. …
Proverbs 12:18
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
Proverbs 15:2
The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.
Psalms 17:10
They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

Topics

Boasting Speaking

Commentary

Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Bible (1710)

(vv. 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…

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, David Brown’s Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary (1871)

(vv. 5)

5. boasteth great things--There is great moment in what the careless think “little” things [Bengel]. Compare “a world,” “the course of nature,” “hell,” Jas 3:6, which illustrate how the little tongue’s great words produce great mischief. how great a matter a little fire kindleth--The best manuscripts read, “how little a fire kindleth how great a,” &c. Alford, for “matter,” translates, “forest.” Bu…