James 3:11

Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter?

The use of the interrogative here is from a Hebrew idiom which carries the meaning of "you do not suppose, do you, that the same fountain, etc." It was used to convey a very strong negative. It is said that along the Dead Sea there were both salt-water and fresh-water fountains; so James made his meaning clear by adding "from the same opening." The illustration shows that man's behavior in blessing God and cursing men with the same tongue was a monstrous perversion of nature, in fact an altogether impossibility in nature.