¹James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus the Anointed One, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greeting.

²Esteem it all joy, my brothers, when you may fall into various trials,

³knowing that the testing of your trust produces endurance;

⁴and let endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask from God, the One giving to all generously and not finding fault, and it will be given to him.

⁶However, he should ask in trust, doubting nothing; for the one doubting has been likened to a wave of the sea, being blown by the wind and being tossed by the wind.

⁷For that man should not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

⁹However, let the brother of low degree boast in his exaltation,

¹⁰and he who is rich, in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.

¹¹For the sun has risen with its burning heat and withered the grass, and its flower has fallen and the beauty of its appearance has perished; thus also the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.

¹²Blessed is the man who endures trial, because, having been approved, he will receive the wreath of life that the Lord has promised to those loving Him.

¹³No one being tempted should say that "By God I am being tempted"; for God is unable to be tempted by evils, and He Himself tempts no one;

¹⁴however, a man is tempted by his own desire, being drawn away and being enticed;

¹⁵then the desire, when it had conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it had become fully grown, brings forth death.

¹⁶Be not misled, my beloved brothers;

¹⁷every good act of giving and every perfect gift is coming down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of shifting.

¹⁸Having willed it, He brought us forth by the word of truth, for us to be a certain firstfruits of His creatures.

¹⁹You should know this, my beloved brothers; however, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

²⁰For the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God.

²¹Therefore, having put aside all filthiness and excess of wickedness, in humility receive the implanted word, which is able to rescue your souls.

²²However, be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

²³Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one has been likened to a man looking at his natural face in a mirror;

²⁴for he has viewed himself and has gone away, and immediately he has forgotten what he was like.

²⁵However, the one having looked intently into the perfect law, that of freedom, and having continued in it, not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work having been — this one will be blessed in the work to be done by him.

²⁶But if anyone seems to be religious among you, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, the religion of this one is worthless.

²⁷Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their tribulation, to keep oneself unstained from the world.