The Letter of James 5:1-20

  • Warning to the rich (1-6)

  • God blesses patient endurance (7-11)

  • Let your “yes” mean yes (12)

  • Prayer of faith effective (13-18)

  • Helping a sinner to return (19, 20)

5  Come, now, you rich men, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming upon you.+  Your riches have rotted, and your clothing has become moth-eaten.+  Your gold and silver have rusted away, and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh. What you have stored up will be like a fire in the last days.+  Look! The wages you have withheld from the workers who harvested your fields keep crying out, and the cries for help of the reapers have reached the ears of Jehovah* of armies.+  You have lived in luxury and for self-gratification on the earth. You have fattened your hearts on the day of slaughter.+  You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one. Is he not opposing you?  Be patient then, brothers, until the presence of the Lord.+ Look! The farmer keeps waiting for the precious fruit of the earth, exercising patience over it until the early rain and the late rain arrive.+  You too exercise patience;+ make your hearts firm, because the presence of the Lord has drawn close.+  Do not grumble* against one another, brothers, so that you do not get judged.+ Look! The Judge is standing before the doors. 10  Brothers, take as a pattern of the suffering of evil+ and the exercising of patience+ the prophets who spoke in the name of Jehovah.*+ 11  Look! We consider happy* those who have endured.+ You have heard of the endurance of Job+ and have seen the outcome Jehovah* gave,+ that Jehovah* is very tender in affection* and merciful.+ 12  Above all, my brothers, stop swearing, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. But let your “Yes” mean yes and your “No,” no,+ so that you do not become liable to judgment. 13  Is there anyone suffering hardship among you? Let him carry on prayer.+ Is there anyone in good spirits? Let him sing psalms.+ 14  Is there anyone sick among you? Let him call the elders+ of the congregation to him, and let them pray over him, applying oil to him+ in the name of Jehovah.* 15  And the prayer of faith will make the sick one* well, and Jehovah* will raise him up. Also, if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16  Therefore, openly confess your sins+ to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. A righteous man’s supplication has a powerful effect.*+ 17  E·liʹjah was a man with feelings like ours, and yet when he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.+ 18  Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the land produced fruit.+ 19  My brothers, if anyone among you is led astray from the truth and another turns him back, 20  know that whoever turns a sinner back from the error+ of his way will save him* from death and will cover a multitude of sins.+

Footnotes

Or “groan; complain.” Lit., “heave sighs.”
Or “very compassionate.”
Or “blessed.”
Or possibly, “tired one.”
Lit., “has much force when it is at work.”
Or “his soul.”