Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
Parallel translations
- WEB Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.
- BSB My brothers, can a fig tree grow olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
- NKJV Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
- NASB Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.
- NLT Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A fig tree cannot bear olives, nor a grapevine figs, and salt water cannot yield fresh. The source determines the fruit, and so it is with the tongue.
Overview
James continues with examples from nature: each plant and spring produces according to its nature. The lesson is that consistent, godly speech must flow from a heart truly changed by God. Bitter and blessing cannot genuinely coexist; lasting transformation of the tongue requires a renewed heart.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Luke 6:43–44For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
- Matt 12:33Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
- Matt 7:16–20Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
- Jer 2:21Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
- Rom 11:16–18For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
- Isa 5:2–4And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
- Ezek 47:8–11Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.
- Exod 15:23–25And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
- 2 Kgs 2:19–22And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The wisdom from above and the royal law of love are the life of those who belong to 'our glorious Lord Jesus Christ' — faith in him made visible in works.
How James 3:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.