James 3:5-6

3:5 So too the tongue is a small part of the body, ¹  yet it has great pretensions. ²  Think ³  how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze. 3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ⁴  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ⁵  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ⁶ 

James 1:26

1:26 If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile.

Psalms 34:13

34:13 Then make sure you don’t speak evil words ⁷ 

or use deceptive speech! ⁸ 

Proverbs 13:3

13:3 The one who guards his words ⁹  guards his life,

but ¹⁰  whoever is talkative ¹¹  will come to ruin. ¹² 

Proverbs 13:1

13:1 A wise son accepts ¹³  his father’s discipline, ¹⁴ 

but a scoffer ¹⁵  does not listen to rebuke.

Proverbs 3:10

3:10 then your barns will be filled completely, ¹⁶ 

and your vats ¹⁷  will overflow ¹⁸  with new wine.

[3:5]  ¹ tn Grk “a small member.”

[3:5]  ² tn Grk “boasts of great things.”

[3:5]  ³ tn Grk “Behold.”

[3:6]  ⁴ tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”

[3:6]  ⁵ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:6]  ⁶ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).

[34:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “guard your tongue from evil.”

[34:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and your lips from speaking deception.”

[13:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “mouth” (so KJV, NAB). The term פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) functions as a metonymy of cause for speech.

[13:3]  ¹⁰ tn The term “but” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[13:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “opens wide his lips.” This is an idiom meaning “to be talkative” (BDB 832 s.v. פָּשַׂק Qal). Cf. NIV “speaks rashly”; TEV “a careless talker”; CEV “talk too much.”

[13:3]  ¹² sn Tight control over what one says prevents trouble (e.g., Prov 10:10; 17:28; Jas 3:1-12; Sir 28:25). Amenemope advises to “sleep a night before speaking” (5:15; ANET 422, n. 10). The old Arab proverb is appropriate: “Take heed that your tongue does not cut your throat” (O. Zockler, Proverbs, 134).

[13:1]  ¹³ tn The term “accepts” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and clarity.

[13:1]  ¹⁴ tc G. R. Driver suggested reading this word as מְיֻסַּר (mÿyussar, “allows himself to be disciplined”); see his “Hebrew Notes on Prophets and Proverbs,” JTS 41 (1940): 174. But this is not necessary at all; the MT makes good sense as it stands. Similarly, the LXX has “a wise son listens to his father.”

[13:1]  ¹⁵ sn The “scoffer” is the worst kind of fool. He has no respect for authority, reviles worship of God, and is unteachable because he thinks he knows it all. The change to a stronger word in the second colon – “rebuke” (גָּעַר, ga’ar) – shows that he does not respond to instruction on any level. Cf. NLT “a young mocker,” taking this to refer to the opposite of the “wise son” in the first colon.

[3:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “with plenty” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “to overflowing.” The noun שָׂבָע (sava’, “plenty; satiety”) functions as an adverbial accusative of manner or contents: “completely.”

[3:10]  ¹⁷ sn This pictures the process of pressing grapes in which the upper receptacle is filled with grapes and the lower one catches the juice. The harvest of grapes will be so plentiful that the lower vat will overflow with grape juice. The pictures in v. 10 are metonymies of effect for cause (= the great harvest that God will provide when they honor him).

[3:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “burst open.” The verb פָּרַץ (parats, “to burst open”) functions as hyperbole here to emphasize the fullness of the wine vats (BDB 829 s.v. 9).