Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible RHE
New Revised Standard NRS
1 From whence are wars and contentions among you? Are they not hence, from your concupiscences, which war in your members?
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Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?
2 You covet, and have not: you kill and envy and cannot obtain. You contend and war, and you have not: because you ask not.
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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.
3 You ask and receive not: because you ask amiss, that you may consume it on your concupiscences.
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You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.
4 Adulterers, know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world becometh an enemy of God.
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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.
5 Or do you think that the scripture saith in vain: To envy doth the spirit covet which dwelleth in you?
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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"?
6 But he giveth greater grace. Wherefore he saith: God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.
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But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
7 Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil: and he will fly from you.
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Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God: and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
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Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be afflicted and mourn and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into sorrow.
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Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.
10 Be humbled in the sight of the Lord: and he will exalt you.
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Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 Detract not one another, my brethren. He that detracteth his brother, or he that judgeth his brother, detracteth the law and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
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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.
12 There is one lawgiver and judge, that is able to destroy and to deliver.
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There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?
13 But who art thou that judgest thy neighbour? Behold, now you that say: To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and there we will spend a year and will traffic and make our gain.
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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."
14 Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow.
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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.
15 For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while and afterwards shall vanish away. For that you should say: If the Lord will, and, If we shall live, we will do this or that.
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Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that."
16 But now you rejoice in your arrogancies. All such rejoicing is wicked.
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As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
17 To him therefore who knoweth to do good and doth it not, to him it is sin.
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Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.