Gia-cơ 5

A warning to the rich

¹Listen now, you who are rich: weep and cry out in grief over the miseries that are about to fall on you. ²Your riches have rotted away, and your clothes have been eaten by moths. ³Your gold and silver have corroded, and the corrosion on them will stand as evidence against you and will devour your flesh. What you have heaped up in the last days is like fire.^{a 4}Listen! The pay you held back from the laborers who mowed your fields is crying out, and the shouts of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Armies.^{b 5}Your life on earth has been soft and given over to pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned and murdered the righteous.^c Does he not oppose you?^{de 7}So then, brothers and sisters, wait patiently until the Lord comes. Think of the farmer, who waits for the land to yield its precious harvest and is patient over it until the early and late rains have come.^{f 8}You must be patient as well. Make your hearts firm, for the Lord’s coming has drawn near. ⁹Stop complaining about one another, brothers and sisters, or you yourselves will be judged. Look: the Judge is already standing at the doors. ¹⁰Brothers and sisters, look to the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name, and take them as your example of hardship borne with patience. ¹¹Indeed, we call those who endured blessed. You have heard of Job’s endurance, and you have seen the outcome the Lord gave, for the Lord is rich in compassion and mercy.

Do not swear oaths

¹²Above everything else, my brothers and sisters, do not swear oaths, whether by heaven or by earth or by anything else. When you say yes, let it be a plain yes, and when you say no, a plain no, so that you do not fall under judgment.^g

Prayer in trouble and sickness

¹³Is any one of you going through hardship? That person should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? That person should sing praises. ¹⁴Is anyone among you ill? That person should call for the elders of the church, and they should pray over the sick person and anoint the sick person with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵The prayer made in faith will save the one who is ill, and the Lord will raise them up. And if they have committed sins, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶So make it your practice to confess your sins to each other and to pray for each other, so that you may be healed.^h When a righteous person prays, that prayer is at work, and it can do a great deal.^{i 17}Elijah was a human being just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and no rain fell on the land for three years and six months. ¹⁸Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its crops.

Bringing back one who wanders

¹⁹My brothers and sisters, if one of you wanders away from the truth and someone brings that person back, ²⁰let the one who does so know this: whoever brings a sinner back from the wrong path will save that sinner’s soul from death and will cover a great number of sins.^jkl