James 4:14
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 gain:
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.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- KJV
- 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.
- WEB
- Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
- ASV
- whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
- DARBY
- ye who do not know what will be on the morrow, ([for] what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, appearing for a little while, and then disappearing,)
- BLB
- who do not know what [is] of tomorrow. What [is] your⁺ life? For it is a vapor appearing for a little [while] and then vanishing.
- ÅB
- Dere som ikke vet hva som skal hende imorgen! For hva er deres liv? dere er jo en røyk som viser seg en liten stund og så blir borte!
- OTB
- Men dere vet ikke hvordan livet deres vil være i morgen. Dere er en tåke som viser seg en liten stund og så forsvinner.
- B1930
- I som ikke vet hvad som skal hende imorgen! For hvad er eders liv? I er jo en røk som viser sig en liten stund og så blir borte!
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
1 Peter 1:24
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
Read in contextPsalms 39:5
Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
Read in context1 John 2:17
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Read in contextPsalms 102:3
For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
Read in contextJob 7:6–7
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
Read in contextJames 1:10
But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
Read in contextJob 14:1–2
Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
Read in contextPsalms 90:5–7
Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
Read in context