James 4:9

9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

James 4:9 in Other Translations

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.

9 Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious.

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

9 Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom.

9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow.

9 Be full of sorrow. Cry and sob. Change your laughter to crying. Change your joy to sadness.

James 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

James 4:9

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep
Not in a bare external way; not by afflicting the body with fastings and scourgings, by renting of garments, and clothing with sackcloth, and putting ashes on the head, and other such outward methods of humiliation; but afflicting the soul is meant, an inward mourning and weeping over the plague of the heart, the impurity of nature, and the various sins of life; after a godly sort, and because contrary to a God of infinite love and grace; in an evangelical way, looking to Jesus, and being affected with the pardoning grace and love of God in Christ.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness;
meaning their carnal joy, on account of their friendship with the world, and their enjoyment of the things of it, since they consumed them on their lusts, and which betrayed enmity to God.

James 4:9 In-Context

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

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 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.

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.

Cross References

• 1. Luke 6:25