James 3:12

Surely an etz te'enah (fig tree) cannot yield olives, my Achim b'Moshiach, or a grape vine figs? Neither can salt water yield sweet water.

Orthodox Jewish Bible

In The King James Version

Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

In Context

11Surely not out of the same makor (fountain) pours forth mayim both sweet and bitter?

13Who has chochmah and binah among you? Let him show by his hitnahagut hatovah (good conduct) that the ma'asim of him are of the shiflut (lowliness) of chochmah.

Read all of James 3

Cross References

2 Kings 2:19And the anshei HaIr said unto Elishah, Hinei, now, the situation of this city is tov, as adoni seeth; but the mayim is ra'im, and ha'aretz (the land) meshakkalet (barren, unfruitful).

Jeremiah 2:21Yet I had planted thee a choice vine, 1 wholly a zera emes. 1 How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant 1 of a gefen nochriyah unto Me? 1

Matthew 7:16By their perot (fruits) you will have da'as of them. Surely grapes are not gathered from thorns nor figs from thistles, are they?

Luke 6:43For there is no etz tov producing pri rah, nor again an etz rah producing pri tov.

Matthew Henry on James 3:2-13

Government of the Tongue. ( a. d. 61.) 1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. 2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. 4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm,… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study James 3:12