James 4:13–5:6

Arrogant Boasting About the Future

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there, and carry on business and make a profit,” ¹⁴you who do not know what will happen tomorrow^d, what your life will be like^e. For you are a smoky vapor that appears for a short time and then disappears. ¹⁵Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷Therefore, to the one who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Woes on the Rich Who Oppress Others

5Come now, you rich people, weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming upon you! ²Your wealth has rotted, and your clothing has become moth-eaten. ³Your gold and silver have become corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you, and it will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. ⁴Behold, the wages that were held back by you from the workers who reap your fields cry out, and the cries of the reapers have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts. ⁵You have lived self-indulgently on the earth^a and have lived luxuriously. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous person; he does not resist you.