| New King James Version | NET Bible |
| 1Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? | 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 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 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 amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. | 3you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions. |
| 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. | 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 think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? | 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 He says: “God resists 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." |
| 7Therefore submit 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. |
| 9Lament 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 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. | 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 one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? | 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 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 into this or that town and spend a year there and do 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 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 shall 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." |
| 16But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. | 16But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. |
| 17Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to 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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