James 4:14
New International Version
Why, you 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.

New Living Translation
How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.

English Standard Version
yet 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.

Berean Standard Bible
You 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.

Berean Literal Bible
who know not what is on the next day. What is your life? It is just a vapor, appearing for a little while, and then vanishing.

King James Bible
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

New King James Version
whereas 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.

New American Standard Bible
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away.

NASB 1995
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

NASB 1977
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

Legacy Standard Bible
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

Amplified Bible
Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen in your life tomorrow. [What is secure in your life?] You are merely a vapor [like a puff of smoke or a wisp of steam from a cooking pot] that is visible for a little while and then vanishes [into thin air].

Christian Standard Bible
Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

American Standard Version
whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And they do not know what tomorrow is. What are our lives except a vapor that appears for a little while and vanishes and passes away?

Contemporary English Version
What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow.

English Revised Version
whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
You don't know what will happen tomorrow. What is life? You are a mist that is seen for a moment and then disappears.

Good News Translation
You don't even know what your life tomorrow will be! You are like a puff of smoke, which appears for a moment and then disappears.

International Standard Version
You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Literal Standard Version
who does not know the thing of tomorrow; for what is your life? For it is a vapor that is appearing for a little [while], and then is vanishing;

Majority Standard Bible
You 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.

New American Bible
you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.

NET Bible
You 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.

New Revised Standard Version
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.

New Heart English Bible
Whereas you do not know what tomorrow will be like. What is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Webster's Bible Translation
Whereas ye know not what will be on the morrow: For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Weymouth New Testament
when, all the while, you do not even know what will happen to-morrow. For what is the nature of your life? Why, it is but a mist, which appears for a short time and then is seen no more.

World English Bible
Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Young's Literal Translation
who do not know the thing of the morrow; for what is your life? for it is a vapour that is appearing for a little, and then is vanishing;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Do Not Boast of Tomorrow
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.” 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 is willing, we will live and do this or that.”…

Cross References
Job 7:7
Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

Psalm 39:5
You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

Psalm 78:39
He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

Psalm 102:3
For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.

Psalm 144:4
Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.

Proverbs 27:1
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

Isaiah 2:22
Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?


Treasury of Scripture

Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

It is.

James 1:10
But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

Job 7:6,7
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope…

Job 9:25,26
Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good…

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James 4
1. We are to strive against covetousness;
4. intemperance;
5. pride;
11. detraction and rash judgment of others;
13. and not to be boastful of our future plans.














(14) Whereas ye know not . . . .--Read, Whereas ye know not aught of the morrow--what, i.e., the event may be. The hopeless misery of the unfaithful servant comes into mind at this; he has left the greater business to perform the less; or, it may be, said in heart, "My lord delayeth his coming," and so has begun "to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken." And lo! the thunder of the chariot wheels, the flash of the avenging sword, the "portion with the hypocrites," the "weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Read Matthew 24:42-51.)

For what is your life? It is even a vapour.--The rebuke is stronger still, the home-thrust more sharp and piercing--Ye are even a vapour: ye yourselves, and all belonging to you; not merely life itself, for that confessedly is a breath; and many a man, acknowledging so much, counts of the morrow that he may lay up in store for other wants besides his own.

A vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away (or, disappeareth).--There is a play upon words to mark the sad antithesis. The vision of life vanisheth as it came; and thus even a heathen poet says--

"Dust we are, and a shadow."

(Comp. Wisdom Of Solomon 5:9-14.)

Verse 14 fortifies the rebuke of ver. 13 by showing the folly of their action; cf. Proverbs 27:1, "Boast not thyself of tomorrow (τὰ εἰς αὔριον), for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." Whereas ye know not; rather, seeing that, or, inasmuch as ye know not, etc. (οἵτινες οὐκ ἐπίστασθε). The text in this verse again in a somewhat disorganized condition, but the general drift is clear. We should probably read, Οἵτινες οὐκ ἐπίστασθε τὸ τῆς αὔριον ποίαἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν ἀτμὶς γὰρ ἐστε ἡ πρὸς ὀλίγον φαινομένη ἔπειτα καὶ ἀφανιζομένη, R.V., "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor, our that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
You
οἵτινες (hoitines)
Personal / Relative Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3748: Whosoever, whichsoever, whatsoever.

do not even know
ἐπίστασθε (epistasthe)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 1987: To know, know of, understand. Apparently a middle voice of ephistemi; to put the mind upon, i.e. Comprehend, or be acquainted with.

what [will happen]
τὸ (to)
Article - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

tomorrow!
αὔριον (aurion)
Adverb
Strong's 839: Tomorrow. From a derivative of the same as aer; properly, fresh, i.e. to-morrow.

What [is]
ποία (poia)
Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 4169: Of what sort. From the base of pou and hoios; individualizing interrogative what sort of, or which one.

your
ὑμῶν (hymōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

life?
ζωὴ (zōē)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2222: Life, both of physical (present) and of spiritual (particularly future) existence. From zao; life.

You are
ἐστε (este)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

a mist
ἀτμὶς (atmis)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 822: Breath, steam, vapor. From the same as aer; mist.

that appears
φαινομένη (phainomenē)
Verb - Present Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 5316: Prolongation for the base of phos; to lighten, i.e. Show.

for a little [while]
ὀλίγον (oligon)
Adjective - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3641: Puny; especially neuter somewhat.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

then
ἔπειτα (epeita)
Adverb
Strong's 1899: Then, thereafter, afterwards. From epi and eita; thereafter.

vanishes.
ἀφανιζομένη (aphanizomenē)
Verb - Present Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 853: From aphanes; to render unapparent, i.e. consume, or disappear.


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NT Letters: James 4:14 Whereas you don't know what your life (Ja Jas. Jam)
James 4:13
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