James 1:11

1:11 For the sun rises with its heat and dries up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost forever. ¹  So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.

James 3:6

3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ²  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ³  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ⁴ 

James 4:4

4:4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? ⁵  So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.

James 5:4

5:4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

James 5:11

5:11 Think of how we regard ⁶  as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. ⁷ 

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¹ tn Or “perishes,” “is destroyed.”

² tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”

³ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

⁴ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).

⁵ tn Grk “is hostility toward God.”

⁶ tn Grk “Behold! We regard…”

⁷ sn An allusion to Exod 34:6; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15; 102:13; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2.