Chapter 1
1 James a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: greeting.
2 Deem it all joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that that which is approved in your faith works endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect work, in order that you may be perfect and entire, wanting in nothing. 5 But if anyone of you lacks wisdom, let him ask from God, the one who gives to all men unreservedly and does not reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing: for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. 7 For let that man not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 he is a two-souled man, unstable in all his ways. 9 But let the humble brother boast in his elevation, 10 and the rich one in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a flower of grass. 11 For the sun rose with the hot wind and dried the grass, and its flower fell out and the comeliness of its appearance perished; thus the rich man will also fade away in his goings. 12 Blessed is the man who endures trial, because having become approved he will receive the crown of life, which God promised to the ones who love him. 13 Let no man who is tempted say, “I am tempted from God;” for God is not tempted with evil things, and he tempts no man. 14 But each man is tempted when he is drawn out and enticed by his own lusts; 15 then when lust has conceived it bears sin, and when sin has been fully formed it brings forth death. 16 Do not err, my beloved brothers.
17 Every good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights, with whom change has no place nor shadow of turning. 18 Having purposed, he brought us forth by a word of truth, that we should be a certain first-fruit of his creatures.
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of a man does not work the righteousness of God. 21 Wherefore, putting away all filthiness and superfluity of evil in meekness, receive the implanted word that is able to save your souls. 22 And become doers of the word, and not only hearers who mislead yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one is like a man who perceives the face of his birth in a mirror; 24 for he perceived himself and went away, and straightway forgot what sort he was. 25 But the one who looked into the perfect law of freedom and remained, who did not become a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in his doing. 26 If anyone considers himself to be religious, but does not bridle his tongue and deceives his heart, this one's religion is vain. 27 Religion that is clean and undefiled before the God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Chapter 2
My brothers, do not have respect of persons in the faith of Jesus Christ, our Lord of Glory. 2 For if a man enters into one of your synagogues gold-fingered in splendid clothing, and also a poor man enters in shabby clothing, 3 and you look on the one wearing the splendid clothing and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and to the poor man you say, “Stand there or sit under my footstool,” 4 did you not discriminate among yourselves and become evil-thinking judges? 5 Hear this, my beloved brothers.  Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? 6 But you dishonored the poor man.  Do not the rich men oppress you, and they drag you to tribunals?  7 Do they not blaspheme the good name by which you are called? 8 If indeed you fulfill a royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9 but if you respect persons, you work sin, being reproved by the law as transgressors. 10 For he who keeps all the law, yet stumbles in one thing, has become guilty of all. 11 For the one who says, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder;” now if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as if you are about to be judged through a law of freedom. 13 For the judgment will be unmerciful to the one who does not show mercy; mercy exalts over judgment. 14 What is the profit, my brothers, if anyone claims to have faith but has no works? Can this faith save him? No. 15 If a brother or a sister is naked and lacking the daily food, 16 and anyone of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled;” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what is the profit? 17 So indeed faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works;” show me your faith without the works; and I will show you my faith by the works. 19 You believe that God is one? You do well; the demons also believe and shudder. 20 But are you willing to know, o vain man, that faith without works is barren? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith worked with his works, and by his works his faith was perfected, 23 and the scripture was fulfilled that said, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness,” and he was called friend of God. 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not only by faith. 25 And likewise was not Rahab the prostitute also justified, entertaining the messengers and sending them forth by a different way? 26 For as the body without spirit is dead, so also is faith without works.

Chapter 3
Do not become many teachers, my brothers, knowing that we shall receive greater judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many respects; if anyone does not stumble in word, this is a perfect man, indeed able to bridle all his body, 3 just as we put bridles into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, and we direct all of their bodies. 4 And behold the ships, being so great and driven by strong winds, that are directed by a very little helm where the impulse of the one who steers resolves; 5 so the tongue is also a little member and boasts great things.  Behold how a little fire kindles great wood; 6 and the tongue is a fire, the world of iniquity, the tongue is set among our members, spotting all the body and inflaming the course of nature and is being inflamed by Gehenna. 7 For every nature, both of beasts and of birds, both of reptiles and marine creatures, is tamed and has been tamed by the human nature, 8 but no one is able to tame the tongue of men; an unruly evil, full of death-dealing poison. 9 By this we bless the Lord and Father, and by this we curse men who were made according to the likeness of God; 10 out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. It is not fitting, my brothers, for these things to be. 11 Does the fountain send forth sweet and bitter out of the same hole? 12 My brothers, can a fig-tree produce olives or a vine figs? Neither can salt water be made sweet. 13 Who is wise and knowing among you? Let him show his good conduct by his works in wise meekness. But if you have bitter jealousy and rivalry in your heart, do not exult over it and lie against the truth. 15 This is not wisdom that comes down from above, but earthly, natural, demonic; 16 for where jealousy and rivalry are, there is tumult and every worthless practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is firstly pure, then peaceable, forbearing, compliant, full of mercy and of good fruits, without uncertainty, unfeigned. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for the ones who make peace.

Chapter 4
From where come wars and from where come fights among you? Is it not from this, out of your desires for pleasure that battle in your members? 2 You desire, and do not have; you murder and are jealous, and are not able to obtain; you fight and you war. You do not have because you do not ask; 3 you ask and do not receive, because you ask ill in order that you may spend what you receive in your pleasures. 4 Adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity of God? Therefore, whoever resolves to be a friend of the world is constituted an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the scripture vainly says, “The Spirit which dwelt in you yearns to envy?” 6 But he gives greater grace; wherefore it says, “God resists arrogant men, but he gives grace to humble men.” 7 Therefore, be subject to God; but oppose the devil, and he will flee from you; 8 draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, two-souled. 9 Be distressed and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. 10 Be humbled before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 11 Do not speak against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or who judges his brother speaks against law and judges law; and if you judge law, you are not a doer of law but a judge. 12 One is lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy; and who are you, the one who judges your neighbor?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this city and we will be there a year and trade and make a profit;” 14 you who do not know what your life will be tomorrow.  For you are a vapor that appears for a little while, then thereafter disappears. 15 Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your selfish goals; all such boasting is evil.  17 Therefore the one who knows the good to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Chapter 5
Come now, rich men, weep and cry out loud over the hardships coming upon you. 2 Your riches have become corrupted, and your garments have become moth-eaten, 3 your gold and silver have become rusted over, and their poison will be a testimony against you and will eat your flesh as fire. You have hoarded treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages that you have kept back from the workmen who have reaped your lands cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You lived daintily and riotously on the earth, you nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You condemned, you murdered the righteous man; he did not resist you.
7 Therefore be longsuffering, brothers, until the presence of the Lord.  Behold, the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the earth, being longsuffering over it until he receives early and latter rain. 8 You be longsuffering also, establish your hearts, because the presence of the Lord has drawn near. 9 Do not murmur, brothers, against one another lest you be judged; behold, the judge stands before the doors. 10 Take an example, brothers, of the prophets who suffered ill and long-suffered, who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold we count the one who endures blessed; you heard of the endurance of Job, and you saw the end of the Lord, that the Lord is compassionate and full of pity. 12 But before all things, my brothers, do not swear, neither by the heaven nor by the earth nor any other oath; but let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No” be no, lest you fall under judgment. 13 Does anyone of you suffer ill?  Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful; let him sing a psalm. 14 Is anyone weak among you? Let him summon the elders of the church, and let them pray over him after having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will heal the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him; and if he may have done sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray on behalf of one another, so that you may be cured.  The effectual petition of a righteous man is very strong. 17 Elias was a man of like feeling to us, and he prayed in prayer that it should not rain, and it did not rain on the earth three years and six months; 18 and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth its fruit. 19 My brothers, if anyone among you errs from the truth and anyone turns him, 20 know that the one who turns a sinner out of the error of his way will save his soul out of death and will hide a multitude of sins.