James 3:11

11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?

James 3:11 in Other Translations

11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?

11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water?

11 A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it?

11 Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet [water] and bitter?

11 Do clean and polluted water flow out of the same spring?

11 Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening?

11 Can fresh water and salt water flow out of the same spring?

James 3:11 Meaning and Commentary

James 3:11

Doth a fountain send forth at the same place
"Or hole"; for at divers places, and at different times, as Pliny ^F13 observes, it may send forth

sweet [water] and bitter:
and it is reported ^F14, there is a lake with the Trogloditae, a people in Ethiopia, which becomes thrice a day bitter, and then as often sweet; but then it does not yield sweet water and bitter at the same time: this simile is used to show how unnatural it is that blessing and cursing should proceed out of the same mouth.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 103.
F14 Isodor. Hispal. Originum, l. 13. c. 13. p. 115.

James 3:11 In-Context

9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.

10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?

12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.