< James 5 >
1 Come now, you rich, weep and cry aloud for your miseries that are coming on you.
2 Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days.
4 Look, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts.
5 You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He does not resist you.
7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Look, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain.
8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.
9 Do not grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won't be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door.
10 Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
11 Look, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
12 But above all things, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath; but let your "yes" be "yes," and your "no," "no;" so that you do not fall under judgment.
13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises.
14 Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they should pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
17 Elijah was a human being with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
18 He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.
19 My brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back,
20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.