What Does James 3:9 Mean?
With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who have been made according to the likeness of God.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.THE KEY
The same tongue that blesses God is shown cursing people who bear God’s likeness.
THE MEANING
Your tongue can bless God and curse people with the same speech. Yet those people have come into being in God’s likeness, so what you say toward them is bound up with what you say toward God. The verse exposes the split within your own words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that reverence for God can remain intact while contemptuous speech toward people is spiritually unrelated.
THE ROOT
ὁμοίωσιν
homoiōsin
GROWS FROM
ὁμοιόω
homoioō
To make like or to resemble.
The Greek word belongs to the family of making alike, and the same word for “likeness” appears in the Greek text of Genesis 1:26. The person your tongue curses still bears the likeness named at creation.
ALSO GROWS
homoiōma: Likeness, form, or image.
ὁμοίωμα
It shows how this word family speaks of a recognizable likeness, not a label detached from the person.
homoios: Like or similar.
ὅμοιος
It shares the idea of resemblance that makes “similitude” more than a vague comparison.
εὐλογοῦμεν
eulogoumen
GROWS FROM
εὖ + λέγω (eu + legō)
To speak well or pronounce good.
“bless” in this verse is eulogoumen. The Greek word carries speech within its very shape: blessing is spoken good. The verse places that speech beside cursing, showing that the same tongue can turn its words in opposite directions.
ALSO GROWS
eulogia: Blessing or praise.
εὐλογία
It keeps blessing in the realm of spoken words, where James places it.
eulogētos: Blessed or worthy of praise.
εὐλογητός
It shows the same word family describing one who receives praise or blessing.
καταρώμεθα
katarōmetha
GROWS FROM
κατά + ἀράομαι (kata + araomai)
To invoke a curse against someone.
“curse” in this verse is katarōmetha. This Greek word family gives cursing the force of calling harm against a person. Set beside blessing, it makes the tongue’s contradiction sharp: its words can pronounce good toward God and invoke harm toward people bearing God’s likeness.
ALSO GROWS
katara: A curse or imprecation.
κατάρα
It names the curse that the verb expresses in this verse.
ara: A curse, imprecation, or invocation.
ἀρά
It reveals the invoking force within the word family behind “curse.”
THE PATTERN
Speech toward God and speech toward people belong to the same moral field because people bear God’s likeness.
And God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."Death and life are in the hand of the tongue, and those who love it eat its fruit.Not giving back evil for evil, or insult for insult, but on the contrary, speaking good, knowing that you are called to this, so that you may inherit good speech.THE THREAD
And God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."James’s “similitude” is homoiōsis, the same Greek word used for “likeness” in Genesis 1:26. The echo carries the creation likeness into the words your tongue speaks over people now.
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