James 3:5
Good News Translation
So it is with the tongue: small as it is, it can boast about great things. Just think how large a forest can be set on fire by a tiny flame!

New Revised Standard Version
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!

Contemporary English Version
Our tongues are small too, and yet they brag about big things. It takes only a spark to start a forest fire!

New American Bible
In the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions. Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Even so the tongue is indeed a little member and boasteth great things. Behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Even so the tongue is indeed a little member and boasteth great things. Behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood.

so.

Exodus 5:2 But he answered: Who is the Lord, that I should hear his voice, and let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.

Exodus 15:9 The enemy said: I will pursue and overtake, I will divide the spoils, my soul shall have its fill: I will draw my sword, my hand shall slay them.

2 Kings 19:22-24 Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou blasphemed? against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high? against the holy one of Israel. . . .

Job 21:14,15 Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. . . .

Job 22:17 Who said to God: Depart from us: and looked upon the Almighty as if he could do nothing:

Psalm 10:3 For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul: and the unjust man is blessed.

Psalm 12:2-4 They have spoken vain things, every one to his neighbour: with deceitful lips, and with a double heart have they spoken. . . .

Psalm 17:10 They have shut up their fat: their mouth hath spoken proudly.

Psalm 52:1,2 Unto the end, understanding for David, [2] When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul: David went to the house of Achimelech. [3] Why dost thou glory in malice, thou that art mighty in iniquity? . . .

Psalm 73:8,9 They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high. . . .

Proverbs 12:18 There is that promiseth, and is pricked as it were with a sword of conscience: but the tongue of the wise is health.

Proverbs 15:2 The tongue of the wise adorneth knowledge: but the mouth of fools bubbleth out folly.

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: they that love it, shall eat the fruits thereof.

Jeremiah 9:3-8 And they have bent their tongue, as a bow, for lies, and not for truth: they have strengthened themselves upon the earth, for they have proceeded from evil to evil, and me they have not known, saith the Lord. . . .

Jeremiah 18:18 And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremiah: for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words.

Ezekiel 28:2 Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus saith the Lord God: Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said: I am God, and I sit in the chair of God in the heart of the sea: whereas thou art a man, and not God: and hast set thy heart as if it were the heart of God.

Ezekiel 29:3 Speak, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against thee, Pharao king of Egypt, thou great dragon that liest in the midst of thy rivers, and sayest: The river is mine, and I made myself.

Daniel 3:15 Now, therefore, if you be ready, at what hour soever, you shall hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, harp, sackbut, and psaltery, and symphony, and of all kind of music, prostrate yourselves, and adore the statue which I have made: but if you do not adore, you shall be cast the same hour into the furnace of burning fire: and who is the God that shall deliver you out of my hand?

Daniel 4:30 The same hour the word was fulfilled upon Nabuchodonosor, and he was driven away from among men, and did eat grass, like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven: till his hairs grew like the feathers of eagles, and his nails like birds' claws.

2 Peter 2:18 For, speaking proud words of vanity, they allure by the desires of fleshly riotousness those who for a little while escape, such as converse in error:

Jude 1:16 These are murmurers, full of complaints, walking according to their own desires: and their mouth speaketh proud things, admiring persons, for gain's sake.

Revelation 13:5,6 And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies: and power was given to him to do, two and forty months. . . .

matter.

Context
Taming the Tongue
4Behold also ships, whereas they are great and are driven by strong winds, yet are they turned about with a small helm, whithersoever the force of the governor willeth. 5Even so the tongue is indeed a little member and boasteth great things. Behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood. 6And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is placed among our members, which defileth the whole body and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by hell.…
Cross References
Psalm 12:3
May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things.

Psalm 39:1
Unto the end, for Idithun himself, a canticle of David. [2] I said: I will take heed to my ways: that I sin not with my tongue. I have set a guard to my mouth, when the sinner stood against me.

Psalm 73:8
They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high.

Proverbs 26:20
When the wood faileth, the fire shall go out: and when the talebearer is taken away, contentions shall cease.

James 3:4
Behold also ships, whereas they are great and are driven by strong winds, yet are they turned about with a small helm, whithersoever the force of the governor willeth.

James 3:4
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