James 3:10-11

For the last six months, I've been watching Concordia University Wisconsin chapel services on YouTube.  Recent services are uploaded sporadically (if at all), so I went back to the oldest ones available and have been working my way forward.  Last week, I watched the service from 19 September 2012*, where Pastor Smith reads one of his fictional letters from Jane:

The reading is James 3:1-12.  I was following along in my French New Testament and noticed that the word choice emphasizes the distinctions in verses 10 and 11:  "10 De la même bouche sortent la bénédiction et la malédiction.  Il ne faut pas, mes frères, qu'il en soit ainsi.  11 La source fait-elle jaillir par la même ouverture l'eau douce et l'eau amère?"

The ESV:  "10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be so.  11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?"

Blessing and cursing are exact opposites in French (bénédiction and malédiction) because they're built on the same root.  It's no surprise then that this feature is also present in the Latin Vulgate:  "ex ipso ore procedit benedictio et maledictio."

Where the ESV implies a "water" in verse 11 ("fresh [water] and salt water"), it's explicit in the French:  "l'eau douce et l'eau amère."  "Fresh water and salt water" or even "sweet water and bitter water."  (In Greek, these are substantive adjectives:  "τὸ γλυκὺ καὶ τὸ πικρόν.")  Repeating the "water" emphasizes the difference.

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*There are actually two services dated 19 September 2012; one is probably from the 18th and simply mislabeled.