Thomson(i)
1 Be not, my brethren, many teachers; as you know that we shall receive a severer sentence;
2 for in many instances we all offend. If any one offend not in discourse he is a perfect man, and able to bridle in the whole body.
3 Behold we put bits in the mouths of horses to make them obey us, and we manage their whole body.
4 Behold ships also, how large soever they be, though driven by hard gales are managed by a very small helm, and kept to the course which the pilot in tendeth.
5 So also the tongue is a very small member, yet it boasteth great things. See what a great pile of wood a little fire kindleth to a flame!
6 Now, the tongue is a fire, the leader of iniquity; the tongue is set among the members, staining the whole body, and setting the wheel of nature in a blaze, when it is itself set in a blaze by hell.
7 For all kinds of beasts, and birds, and reptiles, and fishes, are subdued and have been subdued by man;
8 But the tongue of man none can subdue. It is an ungovernable monster: it is full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our God and father; and with it we curse men, who are made after the image of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.
11 Doth the fountain send forth sweet water and bitter out of the same opening? 12 Can a fig-tree, my brethren, produce olives? Or the vine, figs? So no fountain can yield salt Water and fresh.
13 Whoever among you is a man of wisdom and knowledge, let him, by a virtuous course of life, shew his works with the meekness of wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter zeal, and strife in your heart, do not boast and lie against the truth.
15 This is not the wisdom which cometh down from above; but that which is of an earthly, sensual, and devilish nature.
16 For where there is a zeal with strife, there will be confusion, and every thing which is bad.
17 Now the wisdom which cometh from above, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easily to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18 And the fruit of this righteousness is peaceably sown by them who cultivate peace.