Yaakov 3:11

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

Yaakov 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.

Yaakov 3:11 In-Context

9 With this we say a bracha to Hashem, Adoneinu and Avoteynu, and with this we put a kelalah (curse) on Bnei Adam, who have been created according to the demut Elohim [Gn 1:26,27).

10 Out of the same PEH comes forth bracha and also kelalah. My Achim b’Moshiach, these things ought not to be.

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

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.

13 Who 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.