| New King James Version | Berean Study Bible |
| 1Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? | 1What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you? |
| 2You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. | 2You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. |
| 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. | 3And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures. |
| 4Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. | 4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God. |
| 5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? | 5Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy? |
| 6But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” | 6But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” |
| 7Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. | 7Submit yourselves, then, to God. 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 purify your hearts, you double-minded. |
| 9Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. | 9Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. |
| 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. | 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you. |
| 11Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. | 11Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it. |
| 12There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? | 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? |
| 13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; | 13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.” |
| 14whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. | 14You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. |
| 15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” | 15Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.” |
| 16But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. | 16As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil. |
| 17Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. | 17Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin. |
|
