Warning to the Rich
1 You rich people should cry and weep! Terrible things are going to happen to you. 2 Your treasures have already rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your money has rusted, and the rust will be evidence against you, as it burns your body like fire. Yet you keep on storing up wealth in these last days. 4 You refused to pay the people who worked in your fields, and now their unpaid wages are shouting out against you. The Lord All-Powerful has surely heard the cries of the workers who harvested your crops.
5 While here on earth, you have thought only of filling your own stomachs and having a good time. But now you are like fat cattle on their way to be butchered. 6 You have condemned and murdered innocent people, who couldn't even fight back.
Be Patient and Kind
7 My friends, be patient until the Lord returns. Think of farmers who wait patiently for the autumn and spring rains to make their valuable crops grow. 8 Be patient like those farmers and don't give up. The Lord will soon be here! 9 Don't grumble about each other or you will be judged, and the judge is right outside the door.
10 My friends, follow the example of the prophets who spoke for the Lord. They were patient, even when they had to suffer. 11 In fact, we praise the ones who endured the most. You remember how patient Job was and how the Lord finally helped him. The Lord did this because he is so merciful and kind.
12 My friends, above all else, don't take an oath. You must not swear by heaven or by earth or by anything else. “Yes” or “No” is all you need to say. If you say anything more, you will be condemned.
13 If you are having trouble, you should pray. And if you are feeling good, you should sing praises. 14 If you are sick, ask the church leaders to come and pray for you. Ask them to put olive oil on you in the name of the Lord. 15 If you have faith when you pray for sick people, they will get well. The Lord will heal them, and if they have sinned, he will forgive them.
16 If you have sinned, you should tell each other what you have done. Then you can pray for one another and be healed. The prayer of an innocent person is powerful, and it can help a lot. 17 Elijah was just as human as we are, and for three and a half years his prayers kept the rain from falling. 18 But when he did pray for rain, it fell from the skies and made the crops grow.
19 My friends, if any followers have wandered away from the truth, you should try to lead them back. 20 If you turn sinners from the wrong way, you will save them from death, and many of their sins will be forgiven.
1 Goe to nowe, ye rich men: weepe, and howle for your miseries that shall come vpon you. 2 Your riches are corrupt, and your garments are moth eaten. 3 Your gold and siluer is cankred, and the rust of them shalbe a witnesse against you, and shall eate your flesh, as it were fire. Ye haue heaped vp treasure for the last dayes. 4 Behold, the hire of ye labourers, which haue reaped your fieldes (which is of you kept backe by fraude) cryeth, and the cryes of them which haue reaped, are entred into the eares of the Lord of hostes. 5 Ye haue liued in pleasure on the earth, and in wantonnes. Ye haue nourished your heartes, as in a day of slaughter. 6 Ye haue condemned and haue killed the iust, and he hath not resisted you. 7 Be patient therefore, brethren, vnto the comming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman wayteth for the precious fruite of the earth, and hath long patience for it, vntill he receiue the former, and the latter rayne. 8 Be ye also patient therefore and settle your hearts: for ye comming of the Lord draweth neere. 9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, least ye be condemned: behold, the iudge standeth before the doore. 10 Take, my brethren, the Prophets for an ensample of suffering aduersitie, and of long patience, which haue spoken in the Name of the Lord. 11 Beholde, we count them blessed which endure. Ye haue heard of the patience of Iob, and haue knowen what ende the Lord made. For the Lord is very pitifull and mercifull. 12 But before all thinges, my brethren, sweare not, neither by heauen, nor by earth, nor by any other othe: but let your yea, be yea, and your nay, nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. 13 Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merie? Let him sing. 14 Is any sicke among you? Let him call for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray for him, and anoynt him with oyle in the Name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith shall saue the sicke, and the Lord shall raise him vp: and if he haue committed sinnes, they shalbe forgiuen him. 16 Acknowledge your faultes one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed: for the prayer of a righteous man auaileth much, if it be feruent. 17 Helias was a man subiect to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rayne, and it rayned not on the earth for three yeeres and sixe moneths. 18 And he prayed againe, and the heauen gaue rayne, and the earth brought forth her fruite. 19 Brethren, if any of you hath erred from the trueth, and some man hath conuerted him, 20 Let him know that he which hath conuerted the sinner from going astray out of his way, shall saue a soule from death, and shall hide a multitude of sinnes.