⁴ Also a ship is very big, and it is pushed by ·strong [fierce] winds. But a very small rudder ·controls [guides; steers] that big ship, making it go wherever the pilot wants. ⁵ It is the same with the tongue. It is a small ·part [member] of the body, but it ·brags [boasts] about great things.

A big forest fire can be started with only a little flame. ⁶ And the tongue is like a fire. It is a whole world of ·evil [iniquity; unrighteousness] among ·the parts of our bodies [^Lour members]. The tongue ·spreads its evil through [pollutes; stains; corrupts] the whole body. The tongue is set on fire by hell [^LGehenna; ^Ca valley outside of Jerusalem where in the OT period children were sacrificed to a pagan god; later used as a burning trash heap; a metaphor for hell], and it starts a fire that influences ·all of life [^Lthe wheel of birth/life].