¹ James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, greeting:

² My brothers count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

³ knowing that the proving of your faith works patience.

⁴ But let patience have its perfective work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

⁵ But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask from God, who gives to all freely and with no 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, being driven by wind and being tossed;

⁷ for do not let that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

⁸ he is a double-souled man, not dependable in all his ways.

⁹ But let the lowly brother rejoice in his lifting up;

¹⁰ and the rich one rejoice in his humiliation, because he will pass away like the flower of the grass.

¹¹ For the sun rose with the hot wind and dried up the grass, and its flower fell out, and the beauty of its appearance perished; so also the rich one will fade away in his ways. Isa. 40:6, 7

¹² Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because having been approved he will receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to the ones loving Him.

¹³ Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is not tempted by evils, and He tempts no one.

¹⁴ But each one is tempted by his own lusts, having been drawn out and having been seduced by them .

¹⁵ Then being conceived, lust brings forth sin. And sin being fully formed brings forth death.

¹⁶ Do not go astray, my beloved brothers,

¹⁷ every act of good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom is no change or shadow of turning.

¹⁸ Having purposed, He brought us forth by the word of truth, for us to be a certain firstfruit of His creatures.

¹⁹ So that, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

²⁰ For the wrath of man does not work out the righteousness of God.

²¹ On account of this, having put aside all filthiness and overflowing of evil, in meekness receive the implanted Word being able to save your souls.

²² But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

²³ Because if anyone is a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, this one is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror;

²⁴ for he studied himself, and has gone away, and immediately he forgot of what kind he was.

²⁵ But the one looking into the perfect law of liberty, and continuing in it , this one not having become a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in his doing.

²⁶ If anyone thinks to be religious among you, yet not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, this one's religion is vain.

²⁷ Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.