James Chapter 5
James advises Christians to live their faith in practice and, in addition, offers ideas on how it can be done.
A Conservative Version
5 : 1 Go now, ye rich, weep, howling for your miseries that are approaching.
5 : 2 Your wealth has decayed, and your garments have become moth-eaten.
5 : 3 Your gold and your silver have cankered, and their corrosion will be testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. Ye have hoarded in the last days.
5 : 4 Behold the wage of the workmen who reaped your fields. The man who was defrauded by you cries out. And the outcries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts.
5 : 5 Ye have lived in luxury on the earth, and were self-indulgent. Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
5 : 6 Ye have condemned, ye have murdered the righteous man. He is not hostile to you.
5 : 7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient for it, until it receives the early and latter rain.
5 : 8 Be ye also patient. Establish your hearts, because the coming of the Lord has approached.
5 : 9 Do not grumble, brothers, against each other, so that ye not be judged. Behold, the judge stands before the doors.
5 : 10 Take an example, my brothers, of evil-suffering and longsuffering, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
5 : 11 Behold, we regard those who endured, blessed. Ye have heard of the fortitude of Job, and have seen the outcome of the Lord, that he is very compassionate and merciful.
5 : 12 But above all things, my brothers, swear not. Neither by the heaven, nor the earth, nor any other oath, but let your yes be yes, and the no, no, so that ye may not fall into hypocrisy.
5 : 13 Is any man among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise.
5 : 14 Is any man weak among you? Let him summon the elders of the congregation, and let them pray near him, having anointed him with olive oil in the name of the Lord.
5 : 15 And the prayer of faith will rescue him who is depressed, and the Lord will rouse him. And if he should be a man who has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
5 : 16 Confess ye the trespasses to each other, and pray for each other so that ye may be healed. A working supplication of a righteous man is very powerful.
5 : 17 Elijah was a man of the same nature as we. And by prayer, he asked for it not to 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 produced its fruit.
5 : 19 Brothers, if any man among you may be led astray from the truth, and some man converts him,
5 : 20 let him know that he who converts a sinful man from his wandering way, will save a soul from death, and will hide a multitude of sins.