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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!
James 3:5 · Young's Literal Translation
James 3:5 in other translations
Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts of great things. Consider how small a spark sets a great forest ablaze.
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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In context
2 for we all make many stumbles; if any one in word doth not stumble, this one is a perfect man, able to bridle also the whole body;
3 lo, the bits we put into the mouths of the horses for their obeying us, and their whole body we turn about;
4 lo, also the ships, being so great, and by fierce winds being driven, are led about by a very small helm, whithersoever the impulse of the helmsman doth counsel,
5 so also the tongue is a little member, and doth boast greatly; lo, a little fire how much wood it doth kindle!
6 and the tongue is a fire, the world of the unrighteousness, so the tongue is set in our members, which is spotting our whole body, and is setting on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by the gehenna.
7 For every nature, both of beasts and of fowls, both of creeping things and things of the sea, is subdued, and hath been subdued, by the human nature,
8 and the tongue no one of men is able to subdue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison,
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