the curb put into the mouths of horses to restrain them. The Hebrew word (metheg) so rendered in Ps 32:9 is elsewhere translated "bridle" (2Ki 19:28; Pr 26:3; Isa 37:29). Bits were generally made of bronze or iron, but sometimes also of gold or silver. In Jas 3:3 the Authorized Version translates the Greek word by "bits," but the Revised Version by "bridles."
'Because of your raging against Me, And because your arrogance has come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way which you came.
Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you.
A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, And a rod for the back of fools.
"Because of your raging against Me And because your arrogance has come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way which you came.
Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well.
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