James 4:9

Be troubled, with sorrow and weeping; let your laughing be turned to sorrow and your joy to grief.

Bible in Basic English

In The King James Version

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

In Context

8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Make your hands clean, you evil-doers; put away deceit from your hearts, you false in mind.

10Make yourselves low in the eyes of the Lord and you will be lifted up by him.

Read all of James 4

Cross References

Job 30:31And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping.

Psalms 119:71It is good for me to have been through trouble; so that I might come to the knowledge of your rules.

Psalms 126:5Those who put in seed with weeping will get in the grain with cries of joy.

Ecclesiastes 2:2Of laughing I said, It is foolish; and of joy--What use is it?

Isaiah 22:12And in that day the Lord, the Lord of armies, was looking for weeping, and cries of sorrow, cutting off of the hair, and putting on the clothing of grief:

Jeremiah 31:13Then the virgin will have joy in the dance, and the young men and the old will be glad: for I will have their weeping turned into joy, I will give them comfort and make them glad after their sorrow.

Matthew Henry on James 4:2-11

Origin of War and Contention; Against Pride; Submission to God. ( a. d. 61.) 1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever… Read the whole commentary →

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