The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
New International Version NIV
1 What is causing all the quarrels and fights among you? Isn't it your desires battling inside you?
1
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
2 You desire things and don't have them. You kill, and you are jealous, and you still can't get them. So you fight and quarrel. The reason you don't have is that you don't pray!
2
You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.
3 Or you pray and don't receive, because you pray with the wrong motive, that of wanting to indulge your own desires.
3
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4 You unfaithful wives! Don't you know that loving the world is hating God? Whoever chooses to be the world's friend makes himself God's enemy!
4
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
5 Or do you suppose the Scripture speaks in vain when it says that there is a spirit in us which longs to envy?
5
Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us ?
6 But the grace he gives is greater, which is why it says, "God opposes the arrogant, but to the humble he gives grace."
6
But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
7 Therefore, submit to God. Moreover, take a stand against the Adversary, and he will flee from you.
7
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded people!
8
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Wail, mourn, sob! Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom!
9
Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
10
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
11 Brothers, stop speaking against each other! Whoever speaks against a brother or judges a brother is speaking against Torah and judging Torah. And if you judge Torah, you are not a doer of what Torah says, but a judge.
11
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
12 There is but one Giver of Torah; he is also the Judge, with the power to deliver and to destroy. Who do you think you are, judging your fellow human being?
12
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a city, stay there a year trading and make a profit"!
13
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”
14 You don't even know if you will be alive tomorrow! For all you are is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears.
14
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.
15 Instead, you ought to say, "If ADONAI wants it to happen, we will live" to do this or that.
15
Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
16 But as it is, in your arrogance you boast. All such boasting is evil.
16
As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.
17 So then, anyone who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it is committing a sin.
17
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.