Yakobus 4:9-14

4:9 Grieve, mourn, ¹  and weep. Turn your laughter ²  into mourning and your joy into despair. 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

4:11 Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. ³  He who speaks against a fellow believer ⁴  or judges a fellow believer speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but its judge. ⁵  4:12 But there is only one who is lawgiver and judge – the one who is able to save and destroy. On the other hand, who are you to judge your neighbor? ⁶ 

4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town ⁷  and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 4:14 You ⁸  do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? ⁹  For you are a puff of smoke ¹⁰  that appears for a short time and then vanishes.

[4:9]  ¹ tn This term and the following one are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

[4:9]  ² tn Grk “let your laughter be turned.”

[4:11]  ³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[4:11]  ⁴ tn See note on the word “believer” in 1:9.

[4:11]  ⁵ tn Grk “a judge.”

[4:12]  ⁶ tn Grk “who judges your neighbor.”

[4:13]  ⁷ tn Or “city.”

[4:14]  ⁸ tn Grk “who” (continuing the description of the people of v. 13). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:14]  ⁹ tn Or “you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.”

[4:14]  ¹⁰ tn Or “a vapor.” The Greek word ἀτμίς (atmis) denotes a swirl of smoke arising from a fire (cf. Gen 19:28; Lev 16:13; Joel 2:30 [Acts 2:19]; Ezek 8:11).