Epistle of James - The New Testament

¹ Well now, you rich! Lament, weep for the miseries that are coming to you.

² Your wealth is rotting, your clothes are all moth-eaten.

³ All your gold and your silver are corroding away, and the same corrosion will be a witness against you and eat into your body. It is like a fire which you have stored up for the final days.

⁴ Can you hear crying out against you the wages which you kept back from the labourers mowing your fields? The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Sabaoth.

⁵ On earth you have had a life of comfort and luxury; in the time of slaughter you went on eating to your heart's content.

⁶ It was you who condemned the upright and killed them; they offered you no resistance.

⁷ Now be patient, brothers, until the Lord's coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains!

⁸ You too must be patient; do not lose heart, because the Lord's coming will be soon.

⁹ Do not make complaints against one another, brothers, so as not to be brought to judgement yourselves; the Judge is already to be seen waiting at the gates.

¹⁰ For your example, brothers, in patiently putting up with persecution, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord's name;

¹¹ remember it is those who had perseverance that we say are the blessed ones. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and understood the Lord's purpose, realising that the Lord is kind and compassionate.

¹² Above all, my brothers, do not swear by heaven or by the earth or use any oaths at all. If you mean 'yes', you must say 'yes'; if you mean 'no', say 'no'. Otherwise you make yourselves liable to judgement.

¹³ Any one of you who is in trouble should pray; anyone in good spirits should sing a psalm.

¹⁴ Any one of you who is ill should send for the elders of the church, and they must anoint the sick person with oil in the name of the Lord and pray over him.

¹⁵ The prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up again; and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.

¹⁶ So confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another to be cured; the heartfelt prayer of someone upright works very powerfully.

¹⁷ Elijah was a human being as frail as ourselves -- he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and no rain fell for three and a half years;

¹⁸ then he prayed again and the sky gave rain and the earth gave crops.

¹⁹ My brothers, if one of you strays away from the truth, and another brings him back to it,

²⁰ he may be sure that anyone who can bring back a sinner from his erring ways will be saving his soul from death and covering over many a sin.