1:1 James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion: Greetings.
1:2 \p Count it all joy, my brothers, when you⁺ fall into manifold trials; 
1:3 knowing that the proving of your⁺ faith works patience. 
1:4 And let patience have [its] perfect work, that you⁺ may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.
1:5 \p But if any of you⁺ lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and does not upbraid; and it will be given him. 
1:6 But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing: for he who doubts is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. 
1:7 For do not let that man think that he will receive anything of the Lord; 
1:8 a man who is double-minded, unstable in all his ways.
1:9 \p But let the brother who is lowly glory in his high [position]; 
1:10 and the rich, in his low [position]: because as the flower of the grass he will pass away. 
1:11 For the sun rises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass; and its flower falls, and the grace of its fashion perishes: so also will the rich man fade away in his ventures.
1:12 \p Blessed is the man who endures trial; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which [the Lord] promised to those who love him. 
1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God can't be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no man: 
1:14 but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own desire, and enticed. 
1:15 Then the desire, when it has conceived, bears sin: and the sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. 
1:16 Don't be deceived, my beloved brothers. 
1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights [of heaven]; with whom there is neither shift in position, nor shadow that is cast by turning. 
1:18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
1:19 \p Know [this], my beloved brothers: let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
1:20 for the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God. 
1:21 Therefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your⁺ souls. 
1:22 But be⁺ doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your⁺ own selves. 
1:23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror: 
1:24 for he looks at himself, and goes away, and right away forgets what manner of man he was. 
1:25 But he who looks into the perfect law, the [law] of liberty, and stays [with it], not being a hearer that forgets but a doer that works, this man will be blessed in his doing. 
1:26 If any man thinks himself to be religious, while he doesn't bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is useless. 
1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world.
2:1 \p My brothers, don't show favoritism in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, [the Lord] of glory. 
2:2 For if there comes into your⁺ synagogue a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, and there comes in also a poor man in vile clothing; 
2:3 and you⁺ have regard to him who wears the fine clothing, and say, You sit here in a good place; and you⁺ say to the poor man, You stand, or sit there under my footstool; 
2:4 don't you⁺ then make distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 
2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers; did not God choose those who are poor as to the world [to be] rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? 
2:6 But you⁺ have dishonored the poor man. Don't the rich oppress you⁺, and themselves drag you⁺ into court? 
2:7 Don't they blaspheme the honorable name by which you⁺ are called? 
2:8 Nevertheless if you⁺ fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, You will love your fellow man as yourself, you⁺ do well: 
2:9 but if you⁺ show favoritism, you⁺ commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors. 
2:10 For whoever will keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one [point], he has become guilty of all. 
2:11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you do not commit adultery, but kill, you have become a transgressor of the law. 
2:12 So speak⁺, and so do⁺, as men who are to be judged by a law of liberty. 
2:13 For judgment [is] without mercy to him who has shown no mercy: mercy glories against judgment.
2:14 \p What does it profit, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but doesn't have works? Can that faith save him? 
2:15 If a brother or sister is naked and may be in lack of daily food, 
2:16 and one of you⁺ says to them, Go in peace, be⁺ warmed and filled; and yet you⁺ don't give them the things needful to the body; what does it profit? 
2:17 Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead in itself. 
2:18 Yes, a man will say, You have faith, and I have works: show me your faith apart from [your] works, and I by my works will show you [my] faith. 
2:19 You believe that there is [only] one God; you do well: the demons also believe, and shudder. 
2:20 But do you want to know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren? 
2:21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 
2:22 You see that faith was working with his works, and by works was faith made perfect; 
2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God. 
2:24 You⁺ see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith. 
2:25 And in like manner wasn't also Rahab the whore justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way? 
2:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
3:1 \p Don't many [of you⁺] be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment. 
3:2 For in many things we all stumble. If any doesn't stumble in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. 
3:3 Now if we put the horses' bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also. 
3:4 Look, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, where the impulse of the helmsman wills. 
3:5 So the tongue also is a little member, and boasts great things. Look, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire! 
3:6 And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell. 
3:7 For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind: 
3:8 but the tongue no man can tame; [it is] a restless evil, [it is] full of deadly poison. 
3:9 With it we bless the Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God: 
3:10 out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 
3:11 Does the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet [water] and bitter? 
3:12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Neither [can] salt water yield sweet.
3:13 \p Who is wise and understanding among you⁺? Let him show, by his good life, his works in meekness of wisdom. 
3:14 But if you⁺ have bitter jealousy and faction in your⁺ heart, don't glory and don't lie against the truth. 
3:15 This wisdom is not [a wisdom] that comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 
3:16 For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile action. 
3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy. 
3:18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
4:1 \p From where [come] wars and from where [come] fightings among you⁺? Don't [they come] from here, [even] of your⁺ pleasures that war in your⁺ members? 
4:2 You⁺ lust and don't have; so you⁺ kill. And you⁺ covet and cannot obtain; so you⁺ fight and war. You⁺ don't have, because you⁺ don't ask. 
4:3 You⁺ ask, and don't receive, because you⁺ ask amiss, that you⁺ may spend [it] in your⁺ pleasures. 
4:4 You⁺ adulteresses, don't you⁺ know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 
4:5 Or do you⁺ think that in vain the Scripture says, The spirit which he made to dwell in us longingly desires to [the point of] envy? 
4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore [the Scripture] says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 
4:7 Be subject therefore to God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you⁺. 
4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you⁺. Cleanse your⁺ hands, you⁺ sinners; and purify your⁺ hearts, you⁺ double-minded. 
4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your⁺ laughter be turned to mourning, and your⁺ joy to heaviness. 
4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you⁺.
4:11 \p Don't speak one against another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother, or 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. 
4:12 There is [only] one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy: but who are you that judge your fellow man?
4:13 \p Come now, you⁺ who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and will gain: 
4:14 whereas you⁺ don't know what will be on the next day. What is your⁺ life? For you⁺ are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 
4:15 Instead you⁺ ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that. 
4:16 But now you⁺ glory in your⁺ vauntings: all such glorying is evil. 
4:17 To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.
5:1 \p Come now, you⁺ rich, weep and howl for your⁺ miseries that are coming upon you⁺. 
5:2 Your⁺ riches are corrupted, and your⁺ garments are moth-eaten. 
5:3 Your⁺ gold and your⁺ silver are corroded; and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you⁺, and will eat your⁺ flesh as fire. You⁺ have laid up your⁺ treasure in the last days. 
5:4 Look, the wages of the workers who mowed your⁺ fields, which you⁺ kept back by fraud, cries out: and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of Yahweh of hosts. 
5:5 You⁺ have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your⁺ pleasure; you⁺ have nourished your⁺ hearts in a day of slaughter. 
5:6 You⁺ have condemned, you⁺ have killed the righteous; he does not resist you⁺.
5:7 \p Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Look, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and latter rain. 
5:8 Be⁺ also patient; establish your⁺ hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 
5:9 Don't murmur, brothers, one against another, that you⁺ are not judged: look, the judge stands before the doors. 
5:10 Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 
5:11 Look, we call blessed those who endured: you⁺ have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful.
5:12 \p But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, neither by the heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath: but let your⁺ yes be yes, and your⁺ no, no; that you⁺ may not fall under judgment.
5:13 \p Is any among you⁺ suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. 
5:14 Is any among you⁺ sick? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 
5:15 and the prayer of faith will save him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him. 
5:16 Confess therefore your⁺ sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you⁺ may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man avails much in its working. 
5:17 Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 
5:18 And he prayed again; and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
5:19 \p My brothers, if any among you⁺ errs from the truth, and one converts him; 
5:20 let him know, that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.
