The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You'll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you.
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Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink.
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Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you've piled up is judgment.
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Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4 All the workers you've exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger.
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Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
5 You've looted the earth and lived it up. But all you'll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse.
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Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6 In fact, what you've done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.
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Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
7 Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master's Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work.
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Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time.
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Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
9 Friends, don't complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.
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Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10 Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God.
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Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
11 What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You've heard, of course, of Job's staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That's because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.
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Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
12 And since you know that he cares, let your language show it. Don't add words like "I swear to God" to your own words. Don't show your impatience by concocting oaths to hurry up God. Just say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can't be used against you.
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But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
13 Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing.
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Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master.
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Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven - healed inside and out.
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And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.
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Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
17 Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't - not a drop for three and a half years.
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Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.
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And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off. Go after them. Get them back
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Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20 and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.
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Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The King James Version is in the public domain.