Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
Parallel Translations
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Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
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Out of one mouth proceadeth blessynge and cursynge. My brethren these thinges ought not so to be.
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Out of one mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing: my brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to James 3:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Romans 12:14 Bless those who persecute you; bless, and don’t curse.
- 1 Peter 3:9 not rendering evil for evil, or insult for insult; but instead blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
- Psalms 50:16-20 But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips, since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you? When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers. “You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.
- 1 Corinthians 3:3 for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?
- 1 Timothy 5:13 Besides, they also learn to be idle, going about from house to house. Not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not.
- Micah 3:11 Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”
- Genesis 20:9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done!”
- Jeremiah 7:4-10 Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‘Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, are these.’ For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt; then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forever more. Behold, you trust in lying words that can’t profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered,’ that you may do all these abominations?
- 2 Samuel 13:12 She answered him, “No, my brother, do not force me! For no such thing ought to be done in Israel. Don’t you do this folly.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain This particular truth ought also to be borne in…
This particular truth ought also to be borne in mind, that severe censors discover their own virulence, which they suddenly vomit forth against their brethren whatever curses they can imagine, after having in sweet strains offered praises to God. Were any one to object and say, that the image of God in human nature has been blotted out by the sin of Adam; we must, indeed, confess that it has been miserably deformed, but in such a way that some of its lineaments still appear. Righteousness and rectitude, and the freedom of choosing what is good, have been lost; but many excellent endowments, by which we excel the brutes, still remain. He, then, who truly worships and honors God, will be afraid to speak slanderously of man.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Secondly, because the order of nature which God hath…
Secondly, because the order of nature which God hath set in things, will not suffer things that are so contrary the one to the other, to stand the one with the other.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and…
10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Ver. 10. Out of the same mouth] As it did once out of the mouth of Pope Julius II, who in the battle of Ravenna on Easter Day, between him and the French, as he sat by the fire reading his prayers, and having news of the defeat, he flung away his book, saying, Sit ergo Gallus in nomine diabolorum, Let Gaul be in the name of the demons. The devil take the French. (Annal. Gallic.) Is not this that mouth that speaketh great things and blasphemies? Rev 13:5. A loaf of the same bran was that foul mouthed cardinal, who entering the city of Paris, and being met by the people who begged his blessing, blessed them at first; but when they came thicker upon him, and hindered his passage, he cursed them as fast; using these words, Quandoquidem hic populus vult decipi, decipiatur in nomine diaboli, i.e. Since this people will needs be deceived, let them be deceived in the devil’s name. Os sceleratum et profanum! The mouth is wicked and imious! (Dr Prideaux, Lect.) Plutarch in Dion tells of a land about Athens, that brings forth the best honey and worst poison. In Polypidis capite bonum inest et malum. Lo, such is the tongue.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain He repeats here, by way of exaggeration, what he…
He repeats here, by way of exaggeration, what he had said Jam 3:9, to show how exceedingly absurd it is that two such contrary actions should proceed from the same agent.
These things ought not so to be; there is a meiosis in the words; he means, things should be quite contrary. See the like expression, 1Ti 5:13; Tit 1:11.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing,....…
Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing,.... Which is not only a contradiction, but unnatural, as well as wicked and sinful:
my brethren, these things ought not so to be: in any, and much less in professors of religion: such things are unbecoming men, are a scandal upon human nature, and exceeding unworthy of the Christian name; see Psa 50:16.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 10. Out of the same mouth] This saying…
Verse 10. Out of the same mouth] This saying is something like that, Pr 18:21: Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and on this, for an illustration of St. James' words, hear Vayikra Rabba, sec. 33: "Rabbi Simeon, the son of Gamaliel, said to his servant Tobias, Go and bring me some good food from the market: the servant went, and he bought tongues. At another time he said to the same servant, Go and buy me some bad food: the servant went, and bought tongues. The master said, What is the reason that when I ordered thee to buy me good and bad food, thou didst bring tongues? The servant answered, From the tongue both good and evil come to man: if it be good, there is nothing better; if bad, there is nothing worse."
A saying very like that of St. James as found in Rabbi Tanchum, fol. 10, 4: "The mouth desires to study in the law, and to speak good words; to praise God, to glorify him, and to celebrate him with hymns: but it can also slander, blaspheme, reproach, and swear falsely." See Schoettgen.
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To find a man who officiates in sacred things to be a common swearer, a slanderer, c., is truly monstrous but there have been many cases of this kind, and I have known several. Let me say to all such, My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing…
Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing - The meaning here may be, either that out of the mouth of man two such opposite things proceed, not referring to the same individual, but to different persons; or, out of the mouth of the same individual. Both of these are true; and both are equally incongruous and wrong. No organ should be devoted to uses so unlike, and the mouth should be employed in giving utterance only to that which is just, benevolent, and good. It is true, however, that the mouth is devoted to these opposite employments; and that while one part of the race employ it for purposes of praise, the other employ it in uttering maledictions. It is also true of many individuals that at one time they praise their Maker, and then, with the same organ, calumniate, and slander, and revile their fellow-men. After an act of solemn devotion in the house of God, the professed worshipper goes forth with the feelings of malice in his heart, and the language of slander, detraction, or even blasphemy on his lips.
My brethren, these things ought not so to be - They are as incongruous as it would be for the same fountain to send forth both salt water and fresh; or for the same tree to bear different kinds of fruit.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The tongue, says ÆSOP, is at once the best…
The tongue, says ÆSOP, is at once the best and the worst of things. So in a fable, a man with the same breath blows hot and cold. "Life and death are in the power of the tongue" (compare Psa 62:4).
brethren--an appeal to their consciences by their brotherhood in Christ.
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ought not so to be--a mild appeal, leaving it to themselves to understand that such conduct deserves the most severe reprobation.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 10. Same mouth—Thus far these contrasts have illustrated the…
10. Same mouth—Thus far these contrasts have illustrated the versatile power of the tongue. They will now serve to enforce the wickedness of such inconsistency.
My brethren… ought not—And cannot, just so far as they are true brethren, that is, true Christians, or true people of the Messiah.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 10. these things ought not so to be] The…
10. these things ought not so to be] The verb, strictly. speaking, denotes not so much a state, as the coming into a state: these things ought not to occur in this way.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (10) Ought not.—The Greek equivalent for this is only…
(10) Ought not.—The Greek equivalent for this is only found here in the New Testament, and seems strangely weak when we reflect on the usual vehemence of the writer. Was he sadly conscious of the failure beforehand of his protest? At least, there seems no trace of satire in the sorrowful cadence of his lines, “Out of the same mouth!”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 10. Out of the same mouth. These utterly inconsistent…
10. Out of the same mouth. These utterly inconsistent things come out of the same mouth.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.