| English Standard Version | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 1What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? | 1What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don't they come from the cravings that 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. | 2You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. 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. | 3You ask and don't receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your evil desires. |
| 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 himself an enemy of God. | 4Adulteresses! Don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world's friend becomes God's enemy. |
| 5Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? | 5Or do you think it's without reason the Scripture says that the Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously? |
| 6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” | 6But He gives greater grace. Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. |
| 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. | 7Therefore, 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, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people! |
| 9Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. | 9Be miserable and mourn and weep. Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow. |
| 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. | 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 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. | 11Don't criticize one another, brothers. He who criticizes a brother or judges his brother criticizes 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? | 12There is one lawgiver and judge 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”— | 13Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business 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. | 14You 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. |
| 15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” | 15Instead, you should say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." |
| 16As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. | 16But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. |
| 17So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. | 17So it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn't do it. |
|
