Go to now, ye rich, weep, howling over your miseries that are coming upon you.
Your wealth is become rotten, and your garments moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver is eaten away, and their canker shall be for a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have heaped up treasure in the last days.
Behold, the wages of your labourers, who have harvested your fields, wrongfully kept back by you, cry, and the cries of those that have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
Ye have lived luxuriously on the earth and indulged yourselves; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter;
ye have condemned, ye have killed the just; he does not resist you.
Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord. Behold, the labourer awaits the precious fruit of the earth, having patience for it until it receive the early and the latter rain.
Ye also have patience: stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is drawn nigh.
Complain not one against another, brethren, that ye be not judged. Behold, the judge stands before the door.
Take as an example, brethren, of suffering and having patience, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord.
Behold, we call them blessed who have endured. Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful.
But before all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, that ye do not fall under judgment.
Does any one among you suffer evil? let him pray. Is any happy? let him sing psalms.
Is any sick among you? let him call to him the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
and the prayer of faith shall heal the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he be one who has committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.
Confess therefore your offences to one another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The fervent supplication of the righteous man has much power.
Elias was a man of like passions to us, and he prayed with prayer that it should not rain; and it did not rain upon the earth three years and six months;
and again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to spring forth.
My brethren, if any one among you err from the truth, and one bring him back,
let him know that he that brings back a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall cover a multitude of sins.
Canonical academic citations for James 5 (DBT) — copy in your preferred format.
James 5 (DBT). Prime Bible, accessed October 6, 2026. https://primebible.com/dbt/james/5.
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The rich who oppress will weep at coming misery; be patient like farmers and prophets until the Lord’s return; establish hearts, don’t grumble; let your ‘yes’ be yes; call elders to pray and anoint the sick, confess sins; fervent prayer of the righteous is powerful—Elijah’s example; turn back wanderers from truth to save their souls.
Emphasizes ethical behavior and social justice.
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