3 We put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us. We guide their whole bodies.
4 Look at ships. They are large and are driven by rough winds. Yet a very small rudder can control them, wherever the captain wills.
5 The tongue also is a little member. It boasts great things. Consider how great a forest fire a small fire kindles!
6 The tongue is like fire, the place of iniquity among our members. It defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of our life. It is set ablaze like the ever-burning fires in the Valley of Hinnom Greek: Gehenna: symbolic of total destruction.
7 Every kind of beast and bird, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind.
8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil. It is full of deadly poison.