James 3:12

12 Can a fig tree yield olives, my brothers? or a grapevine, figs? Neither does salt water produce fresh.

James 3:12 Meaning and Commentary

James 3:12

Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries?
&c.] Every tree bears fruit, according to its kind; a fig tree produces figs, and an olive tree olive berries; a fig tree does not produce olive berries, or an olive tree figs; and neither of them both:

either a vine, figs?
or fig trees, grapes; or either of them, figs and grapes:

so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
The Alexandrian copy reads, "neither can the salt water yield sweet water"; that is, the sea cannot yield sweet or fresh water: the Syriac version renders it, "neither can salt water be made sweet": but naturalists say, it may be made sweet, by being strained through sand: the design of these similes is to observe how absurd a thing it is that a man should both bless and curse with his tongue.

James 3:12 In-Context

10 Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing! Brothers, it isn't right for things to be this way.

11 A spring doesn't send both fresh and bitter water from the same opening, does it?

12 Can a fig tree yield olives, my brothers? or a grapevine, figs? Neither does salt water produce fresh.

13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him demonstrate it by his good way of life, by actions done in the humility that grows out of wisdom.

14 But if you harbor in your hearts bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, don't boast and attack the truth with lies!