¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”^m ¹⁴Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.ⁿ

¹⁵Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.^o ¹⁷So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.^p

WARNING TO THE RICH

5Come now, you rich^q people, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you. ²Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten.^r ³Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days.^s ⁴Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers^t who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Armies.^u ⁵You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts^v in a day of slaughter.^w ⁶You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous, who does not resist you.^x

Read in Logos

James 4:14: yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Cross references

m Pr 27:1; Lk 12:18–20
n Jb 7:7; Ps 102:3
o Ac 18:21; 1Co 5:6
p Lk 12:47–48; Jn 9:41; 2Pt 2:21
q Pr 11:28; Lk 6:24
r Jb 13:28; Is 50:9; Mt 6:19–20
s Rm 2:5; Jms 5:8
t Lv 19:13; Jb 24:10–11; Jr 22:13; Mal 3:5
u Dt 24:15; Rm 9:29
v Jb 21:13; Am 6:1
w Jr 12:3; 25:34
x Heb 10:38; Jms 4:2