James 3:5

The tongue is a small body part that boasts great things, and a tiny spark can set a forest ablaze. Small words can produce enormous effects.

Cross-references · 22

• Prov 18:21Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.
• Jer 9:3–8“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood; and they have grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh.
• Prov 12:18There is one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
• Prov 15:2The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of fools gush out folly.
• Ps 17:10They close up their callous hearts. With their mouth they speak proudly.
• Ps 73:8–9They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression.
• Ps 12:2–4Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.
• Ps 52:1–2For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, “David has come to Ahimelech’s house.” Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God’s loving kindness endures continually.
• Jude 1:16These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts (and their mouth speaks proud things), showing respect of persons to gain advantage.
• Jer 18:18Then they said, “Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”
• Rev 13:5–6A mouth speaking great things and blasphemy was given to him. Authority to make war for forty-two months was given to him.
• Ps 10:3For the wicked boasts of his heart’s cravings. He blesses the greedy, and condemns Yahweh.
• Ezek 28:2Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the middle of the seas; yet you are man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of God —
• 2 Kgs 19:22–24Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!
• 2 Pet 2:18For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
• Exod 15:9The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the plunder. My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’
• Job 22:17who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’
• Dan 4:30The king spoke and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?
• Job 21:14–15They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.
• Dan 3:15Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image which I have made, good: but if you don’t worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the middle of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands?
• Exod 5:2Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I don’t know Yahweh, and moreover I will not let Israel go.”
• Ezek 29:3Speak and say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the middle of his rivers, that has said, ‘My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.’

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.