James 3:7,8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For every kind of beasts Πασα φυσις θηριων, every nature of wild beasts. The phrase signifies the strength and fierceness of wild beasts, the swiftness of birds, the poison of serpents, the exceeding great force of sea-monsters; is tamed Δαμαζεται, is subdued, or is capable of being subdued; by mankind Τη φυσει τη ανθρωπινη, by the human nature; every sort of these has been overcome by the art and ingenuity of man; so that they have been made subservient to his use and pleasure. The apostle cannot mean that such creatures as sharks and whales have been tamed, according to the general import of that term, or made harmless and familiar with man, as some beasts, naturally savage, have been; but of which large fishes are in their nature incapable. But even they have been conquered, and brought entirely under the power of man, so that he could use them as he would. But the tongue can no man tame Namely, the tongue of another; no, nor his own, without peculiar help from God. Macknight reads, The tongue of men no one can subdue; observing, that this transaction arises from the right construction of the original, and that it gives a more just sense than the common translation. Some read the clause interrogatively, thus, And can no man subdue the tongue? It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison Mischievous wickedness.