3 If we put *Ps. 32:9bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet *[Ps. 12:3,4;73:8,9]it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And *Ps. 120:2-4;Prov. 16:27the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, *Matt. 15:18staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,*3:6 Or wheel of birth and set on fire by hell.*3:6 Greek Gehenna7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, *Ps. 140:3;Eccles. 10:11;Rom. 3:13full of deadly poison.