Ya‛aqoḇ (James) 3:1-12

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we shall receive greater judgment. For we all stumble in many matters. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the entire body. Look, we put bits in the mouths of horses, for them to obey us, and we turn their body. Look at the ships too: although they are so big and are driven by strong winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot intends. So too the tongue is a little member, yet boasts greatly. See how a little fire kindles a great forest! And the tongue is a fire, the world of unrighteousness. Among our members the tongue is set, the one defiling the entire body, and setting on fire the wheel of life, and it is set on fire by GĕHinnom. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man is able to tame the tongue. It is unruly, evil, filled with deadly poison. With it we bless our Elohim and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of Elohim. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brothers, this should not be so. Does the fountain send forth the sweet and the bitter from the same opening? My brothers, is a fig tree able to bear olives, or a grapevine figs? So neither is a fountain able to make salt and sweet water.