Verse 5

In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, yet it boasts of great things. Consider how a small fire sets a great forest ablaze.

Other Translations

Referenced Verses

  • Jer 9:3-8 : 3 Beware of your neighbor; do not trust even a brother. Every brother utterly deceives, and every friend spreads slander. 4 Each one deceives his neighbor, and they do not speak the truth. They have trained their tongues to speak lies and exhaust themselves with wrongdoing. 5 You live in the midst of deceit, and because of deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the Lord. 6 Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts says: Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people? 7 Their tongues are a sharpened arrow; deceit pours from their mouths. They speak peace to their neighbor, but in their hearts, they set up an ambush. 8 Should I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?
  • Ps 17:10 : 10 They close up their hearts to compassion; they speak with arrogance.
  • Ps 52:1-2 : 1 For the director of music, a contemplative psalm of David. 2 When Doeg the Edomite came and reported to Saul, saying, 'David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.'
  • Ps 73:8-9 : 8 They scoff and speak with malice; with arrogance, they threaten oppression. 9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues strut through the earth.
  • Prov 12:18 : 18 There is one whose rash words are like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
  • Prov 15:2 : 2 The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of fools gushes folly.
  • Prov 18:21 : 21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
  • Jer 18:18 : 18 Then they said, 'Come, let's devise plans against Jeremiah, for instruction won't vanish from the priest, counsel from the wise, or a word from the prophet. Come, let's attack him with our words, and let's not pay attention to anything he says.'
  • Ezek 28:2 : 2 Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Because your heart has grown proud, and you have said, “I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas,” but you are a man and not a god, though you have set your heart as if it were the heart of a god—
  • Ps 10:3 : 3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his heart, and the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord.
  • Ps 12:2-4 : 2 Help, LORD, for the godly have vanished; the faithful have disappeared from among humanity. 3 Everyone speaks falsehood to their neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. 4 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks with arrogance.
  • Rev 13:5-6 : 5 The beast was given a mouth to speak arrogant words and blasphemies, and it was given authority to act for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to blaspheme against God, to slander His name, His dwelling, and those who dwell in heaven.
  • Jude 1:16 : 16 These people are grumblers and complainers, living according to their own desires. Their mouths speak arrogant words, flattering others for their own advantage.
  • Dan 3:15 : 15 Now, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the statue I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will immediately be thrown into the blazing fiery furnace. And who is the god who can rescue you from my hands?'
  • Dan 4:30 : 30 Immediately, what was spoken about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people, ate grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.
  • 2 Pet 2:18 : 18 For they utter arrogant, empty words and entice those who are barely escaping from others living in error, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh and by debauchery.
  • Exod 15:9 : 9 The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoils; my desire will be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.'
  • 2 Kgs 19:22-24 : 22 Whom have you mocked and insulted? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in arrogance? It is against the Holy One of Israel! 23 By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, saying, 'With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I will cut down its tallest cedars and its choicest junipers. I will go to its farthest heights, its most fruitful forest.' 24 I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk water there. With the soles of my feet, I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.
  • Job 21:14-15 : 14 Yet they say to God, 'Depart from us! We have no desire to know your ways.' 15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we profit if we entreat him?
  • Job 22:17 : 17 They said to God, 'Depart from us! What can the Almighty do to us?'