proceeds to show how difficult it is to bring it under control. Man can dominate the animal world (v. 7), but the mischievous tongue remains outside his control (v. 8). The backdrop to verse 7 is the creation account. Man was to “rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26; cf. v. 28). James in customary biblical style divides the creation kingdom into four groups: those