5. 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.
6. The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna.
7. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species,
8. but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who are made in the likeness of God.
10. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. This need not be so, my brothers.
11. Does a spring gush forth from the same opening both pure and brackish water?
12. Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh.
13. Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show his works by a good life in the humility that comes from wisdom.