James 4:3
Ye ask, and ye receive not; for that ye ask (with) evil (intent), as ye show openly in your covetings.
Wycliffe Modern Spelling
In The King James Version
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
In Context
Cross References
Job 27:8For what is the hope of an hypocrite, if he ravisheth greedily, and God delivereth not his soul? (For what is the hope of a hypocrite, even though he may greedily robbeth, when God taketh away his life?)
Psalms 18:41They cried, and none there was that made them safe; they cried to the Lord, and he heard not them. (They cried, but there was no one to save them; they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.)
Proverbs 1:28Then they shall call me, and I shall not hear (or but I shall not answer them); they shall rise early, and they shall not find me.
Proverbs 21:13He that stoppeth his ear at the cry of a poor man, shall cry also (or shall also cry), and he shall not be heard.
Isaiah 1:15And when ye stretch forth your hands, I shall turn away mine eyes from you; and when ye multiply prayer, I shall not hear (you); for why your hands be full of blood.
Jeremiah 11:14Therefore do not thou pray for this people, and take thou not (up) praising and prayer for them; for I shall not hear (them) in the time of the cry of them to me, in the time of the torment of them.
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 →