James 4:14

You should not talk like that, because you do not know what will happen tomorrow, and you do not know how long you will live! Your life is short [MET], like a mist that appears for a short time and then disappears.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

In Context

13Some of you are arrogantly saying, “Today or tomorrow we will go to a certain city. We will spend a year there and we will buy and sell things and earn a lot of money.” Now, you listen to me!

15Instead of what you are saying, you should say, “If the Lord wills/desires, we will live and do this or that.”

Read all of James 4

Cross References

Job 7:6My days pass as quickly as a weaver’s ◄shuttle/stick that takes the thread back and forth►, and they end without my confidently expecting that things will be better the next day.

Job 14:1“We humans are very frail. We live only a short time, and we experience a lot of trouble.

Psalms 89:47Do not forget that life is very short; have you created all us people in vain?

Psalms 102:3My life is ending, like smoke that disappears [SIM]; I have a high fever which burns my body like a fire burns [SIM].

James 1:10And believers who are rich should be happy that they have humbled themselves in order to trust in Jesus Christ (OR, but rich people can only take pride in the fact that God will humble them when he judges everyone [IRO]), because they and their riches [MTY] will pass away, just like wild flowers wither [SIM].

1 Peter 4:7It is almost the time when everything on this earth will come to an end. Therefore, keep thinking sensibly/reasonably and control what you think [DOU], so that you can pray clearly.

Matthew Henry on James 4:12-17

Caution against Slander; Caution against Presumption. ( a. d. 61.) 11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? 13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

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