James 4
English Standard Version
Warning Against Worldliness
4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions[a] are (A)at war within you?[b] 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask (B)wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 (C)You adulterous people![c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? (D)Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit (E)that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But (F)he gives more grace. Therefore it says, (G)“God opposes the proud but (H)gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. (I)Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 (J)Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. (K)Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and (L)purify your hearts, (M)you double-minded. 9 (N)Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 (O)Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 (P)Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.[d] The one who speaks against a brother or (Q)judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only (R)one lawgiver and (S)judge, he who is able to save and (T)to destroy. But (U)who are you to judge your neighbor?
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, (V)“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For (W)you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, (X)“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. (Y)All such boasting is evil. 17 (Z)So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Footnotes
- James 4:1 Greek pleasures; also verse 3
- James 4:1 Greek in your members
- James 4:4 Or You adulteresses!
- James 4:11 Or brothers and sisters
Yaakov 4
Orthodox Jewish Bible
4 From where do milchamot (wars) come? What is their goirem (driving force)? And from where come fights among you? Is it not from here, from the ta’avot (lusts) of you warring in your evarim (members)?
2 You lust for something and you do not have it; you kill and you envy and you are not able to obtain. You get involved in machalokot (divisions of dissensions) and fights. You do not have because you fail to daven with your request.
3 Or you make techinot (petitions) and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly, that on your ta’avot (lusts) you may spend what you receive. [TEHILLIM 18:41; 66:18]
4 No’efot (adulterers)! Do you not have da’as that to have shaichus (closeness, friendship, intimacy) with the Olam Hazeh is eyvah im Hashem (enmity with G-d)? Therefore, whoever chooses to make the Olam Hazeh his Oihev is made an Oyev (Enemy) of Hashem. [YESHAYAH 54:4; YIRMEYAH 3:20; HOSHEA 2:2-5; 3:1; 9:1]
5 Or do you think that in vain the Kitvei Hakodesh attests that Hashem yearns jealously over the Ruach Hakodesh He causes to dwell in us?
6 But He gives all the more Chen v’Chesed! Therefore it says, "Hashem LALETZIM HU YALITZ V’LA’ANAYIM YITEN CHEN ("Hashem opposes the proud mocker but gives grace to the humble" [MISHLE 3:34]).
7 Submit yourselves in mishma’at (obedience) to Hashem. Resist Hasatan, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to Hashem and Hashem will draw near to you. Cleanse your yadayim (hands), you chote’im (sinners)! And purify your levavot, you anashim of double mind! [TEHILLIM 73:28; ZECHARYAH 1:3; MALACHI 3:7; YESHAYAH 1:16; TEHILLIM 24:4; 119:113; YIRMEYAH 4:14]
9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let the tzechok (laughter) of you be changed to avelut (mourning), and the simcha of you be turned to tugah (sadness).
10 Be humbled before Hashem and He will exalt you. [IYOV 5:11]
11 Do not speak lashon hora against an Ach b’Moshiach. The one speaking against an Ach b’Moshiach or setting himself up as a shofet (judge) of his Ach b’Moshiach speaks against the Torah and sets himself up as shofet of the Torah. Now if the Torah you judge, you are not Shomrei HaTorah but a shofet.
12 One is the Mekhokek (Law-Giver) and HaShofet (The Judge), the One who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you, the one who has set yourself up as the shofet of your re’a (neighbor)?
13 Come now, you who say, "Hayom (today) or makhar (tomorrow) we will go into this or that city and we will do business there a year and will sell and make a revach (profit)."
14 Yet you do not even have da’as of what tomorrow’s "yom" may bring. Look at your life! Are you not an ed (mist), appearing a short time, then indeed disappearing? [IYOV 7:7; TEHILLIM 39:5; 102:3; 144:4; YESHAYAH 2:22]
15 Instead of this, you ought to say "Im yirtzeh Hashem" ("if the L-rd wills") "we will live, also we will do this or that."
16 But now you boast in your pretensions. All such ravrevanut (boastfulness) is ra’ah (evil, wickedness).
17 To the one having da’as, therefore, knowing to do tov and not doing it, to him it is chet.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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