Giacomo 4
La Nuova Diodati
4 Da dove vengono le guerre e le contese fra voi? Non provengono forse dalle passioni che guerreggiano nelle vostre membra?
2 Voi desiderate e non avete, voi uccidete e portate invidia, e non riuscite ad ottenere; voi litigate e combattete, e non avete, perché non domandate.
3 Voi domandate e non ricevete, perché domandate male per spendere nei vostri piaceri.
4 Adulteri e adultere, non sapete che l'amicizia del mondo è inimicizia contro Dio? Chi dunque vuole essere amico del mondo si rende nemico di Dio.
5 Pensate che la Scrittura dica invano: «Lo Spirito che abita in noi ci brama fino alla gelosia»?
6 Ma egli dà una grazia ancor piú grande; perciò dice: «Dio resiste ai superbi e dà grazia agli umili»
7 Sottomettetevi dunque a Dio, resistete al diavolo ed egli fuggirà da voi.
8 Avvicinatevi a Dio ed egli si avvicinerà a voi; nettate le vostre mani, o peccatori; e purificate i vostri cuori, o voi dal cuore doppio!
9 Affliggetevi, fate cordoglio e piangete; il vostro riso si cambi in duolo e la vostra gioia in tristezza.
10 Umiliatevi davanti al Signore, ed egli vi innalzerà.
11 Non parlate gli uni contro gli altri, fratelli; chi parla contro il fratello e giudica il proprio fratello, parla contro la legge e giudica la legge; ora se giudichi la legge, tu non sei un esecutore della legge, ma un giudice.
12 C'è un solo Legislatore, che può salvare e mandare in perdizione, ma tu chi sei, che giudichi un altro?
13 E ora a voi che dite: «Oggi o domani andremo nella tale città, e vi dimoreremo un anno, commerceremo e guadagneremo»,
14 mentre non sapete ciò che accadrà l'indomani. Cos'è infatti la vostra vita? In verità essa è un vapore che appare per un po' di tempo, e poi svanisce.
15 Dovreste invece dire: «Se piace al Signore e se saremo in vita, noi faremo questo o quello».
16 Voi invece vi vantate nella vostra arroganza; ogni vanto di questo genere è cattivo.
17 Chi dunque sa fare il bene e non lo fa, commette peccato.
James 4
The Message
Get Serious
4 1-2 Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.
2-3 You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to. You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way.
4-6 You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.”
7-10 So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him make himself scarce. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.
11-12 Don’t bad-mouth each other, friends. It’s God’s Word, his Message, his Royal Rule, that takes a beating in that kind of talk. You’re supposed to be honoring the Message, not writing graffiti all over it. God is in charge of deciding human destiny. Who do you think you are to meddle in the destiny of others?
Nothing but a Wisp of Fog
13-15 And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”
16-17 As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves. All such vaunting self-importance is evil. In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, is evil.
James 4
1599 Geneva Bible
4 1 He reckoneth up the mischiefs that proceed of the works of the flesh. 7 He exhorteth to humility, 8 and to purge the heart 3 from pride, 10 backbiting, 14 and the forgetfulness of our own infirmity.
1 From [a]whence are wars and contentions among you? are they not hence, even of your pleasures, that fight in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye envy, and desire immoderately, and cannot obtain: ye fight, and war, and get nothing, [b]because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye might lay the same on your pleasures.
4 [c]Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the amity of the world is the enmity of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, maketh himself the enemy of God.
5 [d]Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us, lusteth after envy?
6 But the Scripture offereth more grace, and therefore saith, (A)God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
7 (B)[e]Submit yourselves to God: resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purge your hearts, ye double minded.
9 [f]Suffer afflictions, and sorrow ye, and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into [g]heaviness.
10 (C)Cast down yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
11 [h]Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, or he that condemneth his brother, speaketh evil of the Law, and condemneth the Law: and if thou condemnest the Law, thou art not an observer of the Law, but a judge.
12 There is one Lawgiver, which is able to save, and to destroy, (D)Who art thou that judgest another man?
13 [i]Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain,
14 (And yet ye cannot tell what shall be tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and afterward vanisheth away.)
15 For that ye ought to say, (E)If the Lord will, and if we live, we will do this or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 [j]Therefore to him that knoweth how to do well, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Footnotes
- James 4:1 He goeth on forward in the same argument, condemning certain other causes of wars and contentions, to wit, unbridled pleasures and immoderate lusts, by their effects, for so much as the Lord doth worthily make them void, so that they bring nothing else to them in whom they are but incurable torments.
- James 4:2 He reprehendeth them by name, which are not ashamed to go about to make God the minister and helper of their lusts and pleasures, in asking things which either are of themselves unlawful, or being lawful, ask them to wicked purposes and uses.
- James 4:4 Another reason why such unbridled lusts and pleasures are utterly to be condemned, to wit, because that he that giveth himself to the world, divorceth himself from God, and breaketh the band of that holy and spiritual marriage.
- James 4:5 The taking away of an objection: Indeed our minds run headlong into these vices, but we ought so much the more diligently take heed of them: which care and study shall not be in vain, seeing that God resists the stubborn, and giveth that grace to the modest and humble that surmounteth all those vices.
- James 4:7 The conclusion: We must set the contrary virtues against those vices, and therefore whereas we obeyed the suggestions of the devil, we must submit our minds to God, and resist the devil, with a certain and assured hope of victory: To be short, we must employ ourselves to come near unto God by purity and sincerity of life.
- James 4:9 He goeth on in the same comparison of contraries, and setteth against those profane joys with an earnest sorrow of mind, and against pride and arrogance, holy modesty.
- James 4:9 By this word the Greeks meant an heaviness joined with shamefastness, which is to be seen in a cast down countenance, and settled as it were upon the ground.
- James 4:11 He reprehended most sharply another double mischief of pride: the one is in that the proud and arrogant will have other men to live according to their will and pleasure and therefore they do most arrogantly condemn whatsoever pleaseth them not: which thing cannot be done without great injury to our only Lawmaker, for by this means his Laws are found fault withal, as not circumspectly enough written, and men challenge that unto themselves which properly belongeth to God alone, in that they lay a Law upon men’s consciences.
- James 4:13 The other fault is this: that men do so confidently determine upon these and those matters and businesses, as though that every moment of their life did not depend of God.
- James 4:17 The conclusion of all the former treatise: The knowledge of the will of God doth not only nothing at all profit, unless the life be answerable unto it, but also maketh the sins far more grievous.
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
Copyright © 1991 by La Buona Novella s.c.r.l.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
