James 4:13–5:6

Life Is a Vapor

^13aCome now, you who say, “^bToday or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”

¹⁴¹Yet you do not know ²what your life will be like tomorrow. ^aYou are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

¹⁵¹Instead, you ought to say, “^aIf the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

¹⁶But as it is, you boast in your ¹arrogance. ^aAll such boasting is evil.

¹⁷Therefore, ^ato one who knows to do the ¹right thing and does not do it, to him it is sin.

CHAPTER 5

Miseries of the Rich

^1aCome now, ^byou rich, ^ccry, howling over your miseries which are coming upon you.

^2aYour riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten.

³Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up such treasure ^ain the last days!

⁴Behold, ^athe pay of the laborers who mowed your fields—that which has been withheld by you—cries out against you; and ^bthe outcries of those who did the harvesting have reached the ears of ^cthe ¹Lord of ²Sabaoth.

⁵You have ^alived luxuriously on the earth and lived in self-indulgence. You have ¹fattened your hearts in a ^bday of slaughter.

⁶You have condemned and ^amurdered ^bthe righteous man; ¹he does not resist you.