1 COME now, ye rich men, let your tears run down, howling over your miseries which are coming upon you. 2 Your wealth is corrupted, and your robes are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver is cankered with rust; and the rust upon them is a testimony against you, and shall eat into your flesh as fire. Ye have heaped up treasures in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the workmen who have mowed down your fields, which is kept back by you from them, crieth out: and the loud moans of the reapers are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 Ye have gormandized upon the earth, and lived in every luxury: ye have pampered your hearts, as in a day of feasting on the victim slain. 6 Ye have falsely condemned, ye have murdered the just man; nor doth he resist you.
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, in patient expectation for it, till it receives the former and the latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest be ye condemned: lo! the judge standeth at the gates.
10 My brethren, take a pattern for suffering affliction, and patience from the prophets, who have spoken to you in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we esteem those blessed who patiently endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; for the Lord is full of bowels of mercy, and tenderly compassionate.
12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other oath: but let your yea be yea, and your no, no; that ye fall not under condemnation.
13 Is any man among you under afflictions? let him pray. Is any man happy in mind? let him sing psalms. 14 Is any man sick among you? let him send for the presbyters of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 and the prayer of faith shall recover the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess your offences one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The energetic prayer of a righteous man is mightily prevalent. 17 Elias was a man of like feelings with us, and he prayed fervently that it should not rain; and there fell no rain on the earth during three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth shot up its fruit.
19 Brethren, if any man among you should have erred from the truth, and one convert him; 20 let him know, that he that converteth a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.