James 4:2

You lust for something and you do not have it; you kill and you envy and you are not able to obtain. You get involved in machalokot (divisions of dissensions) and fights. You do not have because you fail to daven with your request.

Orthodox Jewish Bible

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

1From where do milchamot (wars) come? What is their goirem (driving force)? And from where come fights among you? Is it not from here, from the ta'avot (lusts) of you warring in your evarim (members)?

3Or you make techinot (petitions) and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly, that on your ta'avot (lusts) you may spend what you receive. + 4:3 Ps 18:41; 66:18

Read all of James 4

Cross References

1 Kings 21:6And he said unto her, Because I spoke unto Navot the Yizre'eli and said unto him, Give me thy kerem (vineyard) for kesef; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee another kerem (vineyard) in its place; but he answered, I will not give thee my kerem (vineyard).

Ecclesiastes 4:8There was a man all alone, and there was with him neither ben nor ach (brother); yet there was no ketz (end) to all his amal; neither was his ayin satisfied with osher (riches); neither saith he, For whom do I toil, and deprive my nefesh of tovah? This also is hevel, yea, it is an evil matter.

Habakkuk 2:5Yea also, yayin is a boged (betrayer, treacherous); 1 he is a proud man, never at rest, 1 who enlargeth his appetite as Sheol; 1 like Mavet, it cannot be satisfied, 1 but gathereth unto it kol HaGoyim, 1 and collecteth unto it kol HaAmim; 1

Luke 11:9And I tell you [when you daven], ask, and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.

John 16:24Until now you did not ask anything b'Shem of me. Ask and you will receive that the simcha of you may be shleimah.

James 1:5But if any one of you is lacking chochmah (wisdom), let him direct tefillah (prayer) and techinot (petitions) to Hashem, the One whose matanot (gifts) are given generously and without grudging, and chochmah will be given to him. + 1:5 1Kgs 3:9,10; Prov 2:3-6; Ps 51:6; Dan 1:17; 2:21

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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