Charles Ellicott Commentary James 3:7

"For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind." — James 3:7 (ASV)

For every kind of beasts . . .—Compare the margin, and read more exactly, thus: Every nature of beasts and birds, and creeping things, and things of the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed, by the nature of man. All kinds have been mastered by mankind, as promised at creation (Genesis 1:26–28). There lives no creature that cannot be won by kindness and gratitude; and—

“He prays best who loves best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God Who loves us,
He made and loves all.”

The fourfold division of animal life above is curiously like and unlike that in Acts 10:17, where we read of “four-footed beasts of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and fowls of the air.”