James 4:13-5:6

New King James Version

Do Not Boast About Tomorrow

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow ^[a]we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; ¹⁴ whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? ^(A)It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, ^(B)“If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you boast in your arrogance. ^(C)All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷ Therefore, ^(D)to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Rich Oppressors Will Be Judged

5 Come now, you ^(E)rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! ² Your ^(F)riches ^[b]are corrupted, and ^(G)your garments are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. ^(H)You have heaped up treasure in the last days. ⁴ Indeed ^(I)the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and ^(J)the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of ^[c]Sabaoth. ⁵ You have lived on the earth in pleasure and ^[d]luxury; you have ^[e]fattened your hearts ^[f]as in a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.