James — Chapter 5

¹Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.

²Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.

³Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days.

⁴Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cries out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

⁵You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

⁶You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn`t resist you.

⁷Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain.

⁸You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

⁹Don`t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won`t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.

¹⁰Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

¹¹Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the Lord in the end, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

¹²But above all things, my brothers, don`t swear, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath; but let your yes be yes, and your no, no; so that you don`t fall into hypocrisy.

¹³Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises.

¹⁴Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,

¹⁵and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him.

¹⁶Confess your offenses one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effective, earnest prayer of a righteous man is powerfully effective.

¹⁷Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn`t rain on the earth for three years and six months.

¹⁸He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.

¹⁹Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back,

²⁰let him know, that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.