And the tongue, &c.— St. James seems to have called the tongue of man a world of iniquity, in the same sense that we say "a world of riches,"—"a sea of trouble,"—"an ocean of delights." So Milton, in his Paradise Lost, speaks of "an universe of death," and "a world of woe." The word rendered course is τροχον, and the passage should be rendered, and sets on fire the wheel or course of our life. The present life of man is here compared to a wheel, which is put in motion at our birth, and runs swiftly till death puts a stop to it. By the rapidity of its motion, the tongue sets this wheel in a flame, which sometimes destroys the whole machine. One of the ancient Heathen poets compares human life to a wheel;
For, like a chariot wheel, our life rolls on; thus beautifullypointing out the continual tendency of human life to its final period. The Syriac version has rendered the last clause, and it will itself be burned in the fire; intimating the punishment which men who have used their tongues wickedly, must undergo: but as the false wisdom, James 3:15 is called devilish, the common interpretation seems preferable.