James · Catholic Public Domain Version
James 4 Catholic Public Domain Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (3)
- Esther and Daniel are the Vulgate books (Esther 1–16 with the Greek additions as chapters 10:4–16; Daniel 1–14 with the Song of the Three, Susanna and Bel). Baruch 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah.
- The translator's footnotes, cross-references, chapter summaries and book introductions in the CrossWire module are not shown.
- No imprimatur; single translator.
1 Where do wars and contentions among you come from? Is it not from this: from your own desires, which battle within your members?
1 Πόθεν πόλεμοι καὶ μάχαι ἐν ὑμῖν; οὐκ ἐντεῦθεν, ἐκ τῶν ἡδονῶν ὑμῶν τῶν στρατευομένων ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ὑμῶν;
2 You desire, and you do not have. You envy and you kill, and you are unable to obtain. You argue and you fight, and you do not have, because you do not ask.
2 ἐπιθυμεῖτε, καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε· φονεύετε καὶ ζηλοῦτε, καὶ οὐ δύνασθε ἐπιτυχεῖν· μάχεσθε καὶ πολεμεῖτε, [καὶ] οὐκ ἔχετε, διὰ τὸ μὴ αἰτεῖσθαι ὑμᾶς·
3 You ask and you do not receive, because you ask badly, so that you may use it toward your own desires.
3 αἰτεῖτε καὶ οὐ λαμβάνετε, διότι κακῶς αἰτεῖσθε, ἵνα ἐν ταῖς ἡδοναῖς ὑμῶν δαπανήσητε.
4 You adulterers! Do you not know that the friendship of this world is hostile to God? Therefore, whoever has chosen to be a friend of this world has been made into an enemy of God.
4 μοιχοὶ καὶ μοιχαλίδες! οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ἡ φιλία τοῦ κόσμου ἔχθρα τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐστιν; ὃς ἂν οὖν βουληθῇ φίλος εἶναι τοῦ κόσμου, ἐχθρὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ καθίσταται.
5 Or do you think that Scripture says in vain: “The spirit which lives within you desires unto envy?”
5 ἢ δοκεῖτε ὅτι κενῶς ἡ γραφὴ λέγει, πρὸς φθόνον ἐπιποθεῖ τὸ πνεῦμα ὃ κατῴκησεν ἐν ἡμῖν;
6 But he gives a greater grace. Therefore he says: “God resists the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble.”
6 μείζονα δὲ δίδωσι χάριν· διὸ λέγει· ὁ Θεὸς ὑπερηφάνοις ἀντιτάσσεται, ταπεινοῖς δὲ δίδωσι χάριν.
7 Therefore, be subject to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
7 Ὑποτάγητε οὖν τῷ Θεῷ. ἀντίστητε τῷ διαβόλῳ, καὶ φεύξεται ἀφ᾽ ὑμῶν·
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners! And purify your hearts, you duplicitous souls!
8 ἐγγίσατε τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ ἐγγιεῖ ὑμῖν. καθαρίσατε χεῖρας ἁμαρτωλοὶ καὶ ἁγνίσατε καρδίας δίψυχοι.
9 Be afflicted: mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your gladness into sorrow.
9 ταλαιπωρήσατε καὶ πενθήσατε καὶ κλαύσατε· ὁ γέλως ὑμῶν εἰς πένθος μεταστραφήτω καὶ ἡ χαρὰ εἰς κατήφειαν.
10 Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
10 ταπεινώθητε ἐνώπιον τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ ὑψώσει ὑμᾶς.
11 Brothers, do not choose to slander one another. Whoever slanders his brother, or whoever judges his brother, slanders the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
11 Μὴ καταλαλεῖτε ἀλλήλων, ἀδελφοί. ὁ καταλαλῶν ἀδελφοῦ καὶ κρίνων τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ καταλαλεῖ νόμου καὶ κρίνει νόμον· εἰ δὲ νόμον κρίνεις, οὐκ εἶ ποιητὴς νόμου, ἀλλὰ κριτής.
12 There is one lawgiver and one judge. He is able to destroy, and he is able to set free.
12 εἷς ἐστιν ὁ νομοθέτης καὶ κριτής, ὁ δυνάμενος σῶσαι καὶ ἀπολέσαι· σὺ δὲ τίς εἶ ὃς κρίνεις τὸν ἕτερον;
13 But who are you to judge your neighbor? Consider this, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into that city, and certainly we will spend a year there, and we will do business, and we will make our profit,”
13 Ἄγε νῦν οἱ λέγοντες· σήμερον καὶ αὔριον πορευσόμεθα εἰς τήνδε τὴν πόλιν καὶ ποιήσομεν ἐκεῖ ἐνιαυτὸν ἕνα καὶ ἐμπορευσόμεθα καὶ κερδήσομεν·
14 consider that you do not know what will be tomorrow.
14 οἵτινες οὐκ ἐπίστασθε τὸ τῆς αὔριον· ποία γὰρ ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν; ἀτμὶς γάρ ἔσται ἡ πρὸς ὀλίγον φαινομένη, ἔπειτα [δὲ] καὶ ἀφανιζομένη·
15 For what is your life? It is a mist that appears for a brief time, and afterwards will vanish away. So what you ought to say is: “If the Lord wills,” or, “If we live,” we will do this or that.
15 ἀντὶ τοῦ λέγειν ὑμᾶς, ἐὰν ὁ Κύριος θελήσῃ, καὶ ζήσομεν καὶ ποιήσομεν τοῦτο ἢ ἐκεῖνο.
16 But now you exult in your arrogance. All such exultation is wicked.
16 νῦν δὲ καυχᾶσθε ἐν ταῖς ἀλαζονείαις ὑμῶν· πᾶσα καύχησις τοιαύτη πονηρά ἐστιν.
17 Therefore, he who knows that he ought to do a good thing, and does not do it, for him it is a sin.
17 εἰδότι οὖν καλὸν ποιεῖν καὶ μὴ ποιοῦντι, ἁμαρτία αὐτῷ ἐστιν.
Cross references (17)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 1 Peter 2:11; Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:23; James 1:14; Romans 8:7
- 2 John 16:24; Matthew 7:7–8; James 1:5; Luke 11:9–13; John 4:10
- 3 1 John 5:14; 1 John 3:22; James 1:6–7; James 4:1; Proverbs 15:8
- 4 1 John 2:15–16; Romans 8:7; Matthew 6:24; John 15:19; Galatians 1:10
- 5 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Numbers 11:29; Titus 3:3; Psalm 37:1
- 6 Matthew 23:12; Proverbs 3:34; 1 Peter 5:5; Psalm 138:6; Proverbs 18:12
- 7 1 Peter 5:8–9; Ephesians 4:27; Ephesians 6:11–12; 1 Peter 5:6; Luke 4:2–13
- 8 Psalm 145:18; Hebrews 10:22; Malachi 3:7; Zechariah 1:3; Isaiah 55:6–7
- 9 Matthew 5:4; 2 Corinthians 7:10–11; Luke 6:25; Proverbs 14:13; James 5:1–2
- 10 Psalm 147:6; Matthew 23:12; 1 Peter 5:6; Luke 14:11; James 4:6–7
- 11 1 Peter 2:1; James 5:9; Romans 2:1; Luke 6:37; Psalm 140:11
- 12 Romans 14:4; Romans 2:1; Matthew 10:28; Isaiah 33:22; James 5:9
- 13 Proverbs 27:1; Luke 12:17–20; Genesis 11:3–4; Ecclesiastes 2:1; Isaiah 24:2
- 14 1 Peter 1:24; Psalm 39:5; 1 John 2:17; Psalm 102:3; Job 7:6–7
- 15 Proverbs 19:21; Hebrews 6:3; Lamentations 3:37; Acts 18:21; Romans 1:10
- 16 Proverbs 27:1; 1 Corinthians 5:6; Psalm 52:7; Proverbs 25:14; Isaiah 47:10
- 17 John 9:41; John 13:17; John 15:22; 2 Peter 2:21; Luke 12:47–48
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
"For God," saith [the Scripture], "resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." Let us cleave, then, to those to whom grace has been given by God.
And man, being a part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee, man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that Thou "resistest the proud," --yet man, this part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
"God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." Again, I will ask you another thing also.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… man, very skilful in medicine, and much renowned therein, who had with his own proconsular hand put the Agonistic garland upon my distempered head, not, though, as a physician; for this disease Thou alone healest, who resistest the proud, and givest grace to the humble. But didst Thou fail me even by that old man, or forbear from healing my …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
But I pressed towards Thee, and was repelled by Thee that I might taste of death, for Thou "resistest the proud." But what prouder than for me, with a marvellous madness, to assert myself to be that by nature which Thou art?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)