James 3:12
New International Version
My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

New Living Translation
Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.

English Standard Version
Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

Berean Standard Bible
My brothers, can a fig tree grow olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Berean Literal Bible
Is a fig tree able, my brothers, to produce olives? Or a vine, figs? Neither is a salt spring able to produce fresh water.

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

New King James Version
Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

New American Standard Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

NASB 1995
Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

NASB 1977
Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh.

Legacy Standard Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can saltwater produce fresh.

Amplified Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

Christian Standard Bible
Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.

American Standard Version
Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Or can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine, figs? So neither can salt water be made sweet.

Contemporary English Version
Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear grapes; or the vine, figs? So neither can the salt water yield sweet.

English Revised Version
Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? neither can salt water yield sweet.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a grapevine produce figs? In the same way, a pool of salt water can't produce fresh water.

Good News Translation
A fig tree, my friends, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water.

International Standard Version
My brothers, a fig tree cannot produce olives, nor a grapevine figs, can it? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Literal Standard Version
Is a fig tree able, my brothers, to make olives? Or a vine figs? Neither is salty [water able] to have made sweet water.

Majority Standard Bible
My brothers, can a fig tree grow olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

New American Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh.

NET Bible
Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.

New Revised Standard Version
Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

New Heart English Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Nor is salt water able to produce sweet.

Webster's Bible Translation
Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive-berries? or a vine, figs? so no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh.

Weymouth New Testament
Can a fig-tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine yield figs? No; and neither can salt water yield sweet.

World English Bible
Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.

Young's Literal Translation
is a fig-tree able, my brethren, olives to make? or a vine figs? so no fountain salt and sweet water is able to make.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Taming the Tongue
11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree grow olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. 13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.…

Cross References
Matthew 7:16
By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

Matthew 7:20
So then, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Matthew 21:19
Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. "May you never bear fruit again!" He said. And immediately the tree withered.

James 3:11
Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?


Treasury of Scripture

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

the fig tree.

Isaiah 5:2-4
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes…

Jeremiah 2:21
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

Matthew 7:16-20
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? …

so.

Exodus 15:23-25
And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah…

2 Kings 2:19-22
And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren…

Ezekiel 47:8-11
Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed…

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James 3
1. We are not rashly or arrogantly to reprove others;
5. but rather to bridle the tongue, a little member,
9. but a powerful instrument of much good, and great harm.
13. The truly wise are mild and peaceable, without envy and strife.














(12) Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs?--Read, Can a fig-tree bear olives, or a vine, figs? The inquiry sounds like a memory of our Lord's, "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" (Matthew 7:16.)

So can no fountain . . .--This, the last clause of the sentence above in the Authorised version is very confused in the original, but seems to be merely this, Neither can salt (water) bring forth fresh; or, as Wordsworth renders it, Nor can water that is salt produce what is sweet. And such in effect is Alford's comment: "If the mouth emit cursing, thereby making itself a brackish spring, it cannot to any purpose also emit the sweet stream of praise and good words; if it appear to do so, all must be hypocrisy and mere seeming." Every blessing is, in fact, tainted by the tongue which has uttered curses; and even "Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner" (Ecclesiasticus 15:9).



Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
My
μου (mou)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 1st Person Singular
Strong's 1473: I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

brothers,
ἀδελφοί (adelphoi)
Noun - Vocative Masculine Plural
Strong's 80: A brother, member of the same religious community, especially a fellow-Christian. A brother near or remote.

can
δύναται (dynatai)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1410: (a) I am powerful, have (the) power, (b) I am able, I can. Of uncertain affinity; to be able or possible.

a fig tree
συκῆ (sykē)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 4808: A fig-tree. From sukon; a fig-tree.

grow
ποιῆσαι (poiēsai)
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active
Strong's 4160: (a) I make, manufacture, construct, (b) I do, act, cause. Apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do.

olives,
ἐλαίας (elaias)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Plural
Strong's 1636: An olive tree; the Mount of Olives. Feminine of a presumed derivative from an obsolete primary; an olive.

or
(ē)
Conjunction
Strong's 2228: Or, than. A primary particle of distinction between two connected terms; disjunctive, or; comparative, than.

a grapevine
ἄμπελος (ampelos)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 288: A vine, grape-vine. Probably from the base of amphoteros and that of halon; a vine.

[bear] figs?
σῦκα (syka)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 4810: A (ripe) fig. Apparently a primary word; a fig.

Neither [can]
οὔτε (oute)
Conjunction
Strong's 3777: And not, neither, nor. From ou and te; not too, i.e. Neither or nor; by analogy, not even.

a salt [spring]
ἁλυκὸν (halykon)
Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 252: Salty, saltine, bitter. From hals; briny.

produce
ποιῆσαι (poiēsai)
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active
Strong's 4160: (a) I make, manufacture, construct, (b) I do, act, cause. Apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do.

fresh
γλυκὺ (glyky)
Adjective - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 1099: Sweet. Of uncertain affinity; sweet.

water.
ὕδωρ (hydōr)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 5204: Water. And genitive case, hudatos, etc. From the base of huetos; water literally or figuratively.


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NT Letters: James 3:12 Can a fig tree my brothers yield (Ja Jas. Jam)
James 3:11
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