Veritable King James Version
1What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within 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.
3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to 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 themselves an enemy of God.
5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that He has made to dwell in us”?
6But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
7Submit yourselves therefore 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.
9Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
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 their brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a 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?
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”—
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.
15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
16But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for them it is sin.
Translation notes
“You” translates “ὑμῖν,” gender-neutral, addressing believers, per the NA28. “Passions” renders “ἡδοναί,” echoing the KJV’s “lusts” but modernized for clarity. “Quarrels” and “fights” translate “πόλεμοι” and “μάχαι,” preserving the KJV’s conflict imagery, per the NA28. “Ask wrongly” renders “κακῶς αἰτεῖτε,” echoing the KJV’s selfish motive. The passage connects to James 3:16’s disorder, per the NA28.
“Adulterous people” translates “μοιχαλίδες,” gender-neutral in context (despite feminine form), per the NA28, echoing the KJV’s spiritual infidelity (cf. Hosea 3:1). Capitalized “God” and “He” follow instructions. “Friendship with the world” renders “φιλία τοῦ κόσμου,” per the KJV. The quotation in verse 5 is unclear in source (possibly a general scriptural principle), rendered “τὸ πνεῦμα ὃ κατῴκισεν,” preserving the KJV’s divine jealousy.
“You” and “sinners” translate “ὑμεῖς” and “ἁμαρτωλοί,” gender-neutral, per the NA28. Capitalized “God” and “He” follow instructions. The quotation in verse 6 is from Proverbs 3:34 (LXX), rendered “ὁ Θεὸς ὑπερηφάνοις ἀντιτάσσεται,” echoing the KJV. “Double-minded” translates “δίψυχοι,” linking to James 1:8, per the NA28. “Resist the devil” and “draw near” preserve the KJV’s imperatives, per the NA28.
“Brothers” and “the one” translate “ἀδελφοί” and “ὁ,” gender-neutral, per the NA28. Capitalized “Lord” and “He” follow instructions. “Be wretched” renders “ταλαιπωρήσατε,” echoing the KJV’s call to repentance. “Speak evil” translates “καταλαλεῖτε,” per the NA28, echoing James 2:12’s law of liberty. “Doer of the law” links to James 1:22–25, preserving the KJV’s emphasis on action.
“You” and “neighbor” translate “ὑμεῖς” and “πλησίον,” gender-neutral, per the NA28. Capitalized “Lawgiver,” “Judge,” and “He” (God) follow instructions. “One Lawgiver and Judge” renders “εἷς νομοθέτης καὶ κριτής,” echoing the KJV’s divine authority. “Come now” translates “ἄγε νῦν,” per the NA28, preserving the KJV’s rhetorical shift to confront presumption, linking to James 2:8’s neighbor love.
“You” translates “ὑμεῖς,” gender-neutral, per the NA28. Capitalized “Lord” follows instructions. “Mist that vanishes” renders “ἀτμὶς πρὸς ὀλίγον φαινομένη,” echoing the KJV’s fleeting imagery (cf. Psalm 39:5). “If the Lord wills” translates “ἐὰν ὁ Κύριος θελήσῃ,” per the NA28, preserving the KJV’s emphasis on divine sovereignty, contrasting human presumption.
“You” and “whoever” translate “ὑμεῖς” and “ὁ,” gender-neutral, per the NA28. “Boast in your arrogance” renders “καυχᾶσθε ἐν ταῖς ἀλαζονείαις,” echoing the KJV’s condemnation of pride. “Knows the right thing” translates “εἰδότι καλὸν ποιεῖν,” per the NA28, linking to James 2:20–26’s faith-works theme. “It is sin” preserves the KJV’s moral clarity.
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