| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? | 1Where do the conflicts and where do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, from your passions that battle inside you? |
| 2You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. | 2You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask; |
| 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. | 3you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions. |
| 4You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. | 4Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world's friend makes himself God's enemy. |
| 5Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? | 5Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, "The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning"? |
| 6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” | 6But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble." |
| 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. | 7So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. |
| 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. | 8Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded. |
| 9Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. | 9Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair. |
| 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. | 10Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. |
| 11Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. | 11Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. He who speaks against a fellow believer or judges a fellow believer speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but its judge. |
| 12There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? | 12But there is only one who is lawgiver and judge--the one who is able to save and destroy. On the other hand, who are you to judge your neighbor? |
| 13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— | 13Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit." |
| 14yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. | 14You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. |
| 15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” | 15You ought to say instead, "If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that." |
| 16As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. | 16But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. |
| 17So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. | 17So whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin. |
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