Exhortation to the rich
5
📚Come now, you rich men✭, weep and howl because of your miseries that will come on you.✭ 2 📚Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 📚Your gold and silver are corroded✭, and their corrosion will be a witness against you, and will eat your flesh as if it were fire. You have heaped together wealth✭ for the last days. 4 📚See, the wages of the labourers✭ who have harvested your fields, which you have fraudulently kept, cry out, and the cries of those who have done the harvesting have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts✭. 5 📚You have lived in pleasure and luxury✭ on the earth. You have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter✭. 6 📚✭You have condemned and killed the righteous, when he was not resisting you. Patience
7 📚Be patient therefore, brethren✭, until the coming of the Lord✭. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it, until he receives the early and latter rains. 8 📚You also be patient and make your hearts firm✭, for the coming of the Lord draws near✭. 9 📚✭Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be judged✭. See, the judge✭ is standing at the door!
10 📚✭My brethren, as an example of patient suffering take the prophets✭ who have spoken in the name of the Lord✭. 11 📚See that we count them blessed who patiently endure✭. You have heard of the patient endurance of Job✭, and have seen the end✭ the Lord brought about, and that the Lord is very compassionate, and very merciful✭.
Swearing
12 📚✭But above all things, my brethren, do not swear, not by heaven, or by the earth, or with any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no. Otherwise you will fall into judgment.
What to do in good times and bad
13 📚✭Is anyone among you in trouble✭? He should pray✭. Is any happy✭? He should sing psalms. 14 📚✭Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they should pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord✭. 15 📚✭And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins✭, they will be forgiven✭ him.
16 📚Confess✭ your faults to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. A righteous man’s✭ prayer at work is very powerful✭.
Power in prayer
17 📚✭Elijah was a man with a nature like we have✭, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 📚And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.
Turning sinners toward God