From where come wars and from where come fightings among you? Come they not from here, even from your pleasures that war in your members? 2 You lust, and have not: you kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: you fight and war; you have not, because you ask not. 3 You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it in your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with Yahweh? Whoever therefore would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Yahweh. 5 Or do you think that the scripture speaks in vain? Does the spirit which he made to dwell in us long to envy? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore the scripture says, Yahweh resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 7 Therefore be subject to Yahweh; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to Yahweh, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of Yahweh, and he shall exalt you.
11 Speak not one against another, brethren. He that 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. 12 Only one is the lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy: but who are you who judges your neighbor?
13 Come now, you that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain: 14 whereas you know not what shall be on the next day. What is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 15 For that you ought to say, If Yahweh will, we shall both live, and do this or that. 16 But now you glory in your vauntings: all such glorying is evil. 17 To him therefore that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is by you kept back by fraud, cries out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of Yahweh Sabaoth. 5 You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have killed the righteous; he does not resist you.
7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Master. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Master is at hand. 9 Murmur not, brethren, one against another, that you be not judged: behold, the judge stands before the doors. 10 Take, brethren, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of Yahweh. 11 Behold, we call them blessed that endured: you have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of Yahweh, how that Yahweh is full of pity, and merciful.
12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, 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 fall not under judgment.
13 Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is 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 Yahweh: 15 and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and Yahweh shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him. 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. 17 EliYah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again; and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 My brethren, if any among you err from the truth, and one convert him; 20 let him know, that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.