3 ¹ MY BROTHERS, not many of you should become teachers, for you may be certain that we who teach shall ourselves be judged with greater strictness. 3 ² All of us often go wrong; the man who never says a wrong thing is a perfect character, able to bridle his whole being. 3 ³ If we put bits into horses' mouths to make them obey our will, we can direct their whole body. 3 ⁴ Or think of ships: large they may be, yet even when driven by strong gales they can be directed by a tiny rudder on whatever course the helmsman chooses. 3 ⁵ So with the tongue. It is a small member but it can make huge claims. Or: it is a great boaster.

What an immense stack of timber Or: What a huge forest ... can be set ablaze by the tiniest spark!

3 ⁶ And the tongue is in effect a fire. It represents among our members the world with all its wickedness; it pollutes our whole being; it keeps the wheel of our existence red-hot, and its flames are fed by hell. 3 ⁷ Beasts and birds of every kind, creatures that crawl on the ground or swim in the sea, can be subdued and have been subdued by mankind; 3 ⁸ but no man can subdue the tongue. It is an intractable evil, charged with deadly venom. 3 ⁹ We use it to sing the praises of our Lord and Father, and we use it to invoke curses upon our fellow-men who are made in God's likeness. 3 ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praises and curses. 3 ¹¹ My brothers, this should not be so. Does a fountain gush with both fresh and brackish water from the same opening? 3 ¹² Can a fig-tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? No more does salt water yield fresh.