James 5
Darby Translation
5 Go to now, ye rich, weep, howling over your miseries that [are] coming upon [you].
2 Your wealth is become rotten, and your garments moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver is eaten away, and their canker shall be for a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have heaped up treasure in [the] last days.
4 Behold, the wages of your labourers, who have harvested your fields, wrongfully kept back by you, cry, and the cries of those that have reaped are entered into the ears of [the] Lord of sabaoth.
5 Ye have lived luxuriously on the earth and indulged yourselves; ye have nourished your hearts [as] in a day of slaughter;
6 ye have condemned, ye have killed the just; he does not resist you.
7 Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord. Behold, the labourer awaits the precious fruit of the earth, having patience for it until it receive [the] early and [the] latter rain.
8 *Ye* also have patience: stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is drawn nigh.
9 Complain not one against another, brethren, that ye be not judged. Behold, the judge stands before the door.
10 Take [as] an example, brethren, of suffering and having patience, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of [the] Lord.
11 Behold, we call them blessed who have endured. Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful.
12 But before all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, that ye do not fall under judgment.
13 Does any one among you suffer evil? let him pray. Is any happy? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? let him call to [him] the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of [the] Lord;
15 and the prayer of faith shall heal the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he be one who has committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess therefore your offences to one another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. [The] fervent supplication of the righteous [man] has much power.
17 Elias was a man of like passions to us, and he prayed with prayer that it should not rain; and it did not rain upon the earth three years and six months;
18 and again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to spring forth.
19 My brethren, if any one among you err from the truth, and one bring him back,
20 let him know that he that brings back a sinner from [the] error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall cover a multitude of sins.
James 5
International Children’s Bible
A Warning to the Rich
5 You rich people, listen! Cry and be very sad because of the trouble that will come to you. 2 Your riches will rot, and your clothes will be eaten by moths. 3 Your gold and silver will rust, and rust will be a proof that you were wrong. It will eat your bodies like fire. You saved your treasure for the last days. 4 Men worked in your fields, but you did not pay them. They harvested your crops and are crying out against you. Now the Lord of heaven’s armies has heard their cries. 5 Your life on earth was full of rich living. You pleased yourselves with everything you wanted. You made yourselves fat, like an animal ready to be killed. 6 You showed no mercy to the innocent man. You murdered him. He cannot stand against you.
Be Patient
7 Brothers, be patient until the Lord comes again. A farmer is patient. He waits for his valuable crop to grow from the earth. He waits patiently for it to receive the first rain and the last rain. 8 You, too, must be patient. Do not give up hope. The Lord is coming soon. 9 Brothers, do not complain against each other. If you do not stop complaining, you will be judged guilty. And the Judge is ready to come! 10 Brothers, follow the example of the prophets who spoke for the Lord. They suffered many hard things, but they were patient. 11 We say they are happy because they were able to do this. You have heard about Job’s patience. You know that after all his trouble, the Lord helped him. This shows that the Lord is full of mercy and is kind.
Be Careful What You Say
12 My brothers, it is very important that you not use an oath when you make a promise. Don’t use the name of heaven, earth, or anything else to prove what you say. When you mean yes, say only “yes.” When you mean no, say only “no.” Do this so that you will not be judged guilty.
The Power of Prayer
13 If one of you is having troubles, he should pray. If one of you is happy, he should sing praises. 14 If one of you is sick, he should call the church’s elders. The elders should pour oil on him[a] in the name of the Lord and pray for him. 15 And the prayer that is said with faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will heal him. And if he has sinned, God will forgive him. 16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other. Do this so that God can heal you. When a good man prays, great things happen. 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three and a half years! 18 Then Elijah prayed again. And the rain came down from the sky, and the land grew crops again.
Saving a Soul
19 My brothers, one of you may wander away from the truth. And someone may help him come back. 20 Remember this: Anyone who brings a sinner back from the wrong way will save that sinner’s soul from death. By doing this, that person will cause many sins to be forgiven.
Footnotes
- 5:14 pour oil on him Oil was used like medicine, so that is probably how the believers used it.
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The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
