1 W hence wars and fightings among you? not thence -- out of your passions, that are as soldiers in your members?

Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

2 y e desire, and ye have not; ye murder, and are zealous, and are not able to attain; ye fight and war, and ye have not, because of your not asking;

You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.

3 y e ask, and ye receive not, because evilly ye ask, that in your pleasures ye may spend.

You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.

4 A dulterers and adulteresses! have ye not known that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whoever, then, may counsel to be a friend of the world, an enemy of God he is set.

You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5 D o ye think that emptily the Writing saith, `To envy earnestly desireth the spirit that did dwell in us,'

Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?

6 a nd greater grace he doth give, wherefore he saith, `God against proud ones doth set Himself up, and to lowly ones He doth give grace?'

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

7 b e subject, then, to God; stand up against the devil, and he will flee from you;

Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 d raw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you; cleanse hands, ye sinners! and purify hearts, ye two-souled!

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

9 b e exceeding afflicted, and mourn, and weep, let your laughter to mourning be turned, and the joy to heaviness;

Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

10 b e made low before the Lord, and He shall exalt you.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 S peak not one against another, brethren; he who is speaking against a brother, and is judging his brother, doth speak against law, and doth judge law, and if law thou dost judge, thou art not a doer of law but a judge;

Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks 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 o ne is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; thou -- who art thou that dost judge the other?

Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

13 G o, now, ye who are saying, `To-day and to-morrow we will go on to such a city, and will pass there one year, and traffic, and make gain;'

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”

14 w ho do not know the thing of the morrow; for what is your life? for it is a vapour that is appearing for a little, and then is vanishing;

Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

15 i nstead of your saying, `If the Lord may will, we shall live, and do this or that;'

For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

16 a nd now ye glory in your pride; all such glorying is evil;

But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

17 t o him, then, knowing to do good, and not doing, sin it is to him.

To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.