4:1 What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members?
4:1 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?

4:2 You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask.
4:2 You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask.

4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

4:4 Unfaithful creatures! 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.
4:4 Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

4:5 Or do you suppose it is in vain that the scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us"?
4:5 Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, "God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"?

4:6 But he gives more grace; therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
4:6 But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind.
4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

4:9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection.
4:9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.

4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.
4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

4:11 Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. He that speaks evil 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.
4:11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, 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.

4:12 There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbor?
4:12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?

4:13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain";
4:13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money."

4:14 whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
4:14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

4:15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that."
4:15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that."

4:16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
4:16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

4:17 Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
4:17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.