James 5
Worldwide English (New Testament)
5 Rich people, listen to me! Cry loud and long because of the troubles you will have.
2 Your things are spoiled. Bugs have eaten your clothes.
3 Your gold and silver are all spoiled. The wrong in them will prove that you have done wrong. The wrong will burn you up like fire. You have kept all these things and now time is almost ended.
4 Listen! Men worked in your fields to cut your grain and you did not pay them! That money shouts against you. The men who cut your harvest have called out to the Lord who has power and he has heard them.
5 You have had a good time on earth. You have done anything you wanted to do. Your lives are full of everything. Like a fat animal, you will soon be killed.
6 You have punished good people. You have killed them. And they do not stop you.
7 So brothers, take your troubles quietly and wait until the Lord comes. A farmer waits until the harvest grows from the ground. He waits for it a long time until it has had the first and second rain.
8 You must wait also. Keep your hearts strong, because the Lord will come soon.
9 Brothers, do not say mean things to each other. If you do, you will be judged. Listen, the judge is standing at the door now.
10 My brothers, look at the lives of the prophets of God who spoke in the name of the Lord. See the troubles they had. They took them and waited. Do as they did.
11 God blesses those who take their troubles quietly and keep on believing. You have heard about Job's troubles and how he took them. And you have seen what the Lord did for him at the end. The Lord is very kind and helps people.
12 My brothers, here is something that matters very much. When you make a promise do not ask heaven to hear it, or the earth, or any other thing. When you mean `Yes,' just say, `Yes.' And when you mean `No,' just say, `No.' If you do that, you will not be judged.
13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should talk to God about it. Is any one of you happy? He should sing songs of praise to God.
14 Is any one of you sick? He should call for the leaders of the church people. They should talk to God about him and put oil on him in the name of the Lord.
15 Because they talk to God, and believe, he will hear them. The sick man will be healed. The Lord will make him well again. If the sick man has done wrong things, the Lord will forgive him.
16 So tell one another the wrong things you have done. And tell God about each other's needs, so that you will be healed. When a good man talks to God, big things can be done.
17 Elijah was a man like us. He asked God not to let it rain. And for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
18 Then he talked to God again. And it rained. Plants grew on the earth.
19 My brothers, has one of you left the right way? Has another person brought him back again?
20 Do not forget that the person who has brought a man back from his wrong ways will save that man from death. He will cover up many wrong things and be forgiven.
James 5
King James Version
5 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
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