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1 Whence is it, that there are among you fightings and broils ? Is it not from the lusts, which war in your members?
2 Ye covet, and possess not; and ye kill, and envy, and effect nothing: and ye fight and make attacks; and ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not; because ye ask wickedly, that ye may pamper your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers, know ye not, that the love of the world is hostility towards God ? He therefore who chooseth to be a lover of this world, is the enemy of God.
5 Or think ye, that the scripture hath vainly said: The spirit dwelling in us lusteth with envy?
6 But our Lord hath given us more grace. Therefore he said: The Lord humbleth the lofty, and giveth grace to the lowly.
7 Subject yourselves therefore to God; and stand firm against Satan, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners: sanctify your hearts, ye divided in mind.
9 Humble yourselves, and mourn: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into grief.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11 Speak not against each other, my brethren; for he that speaketh against his brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law. And if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but its judge.
12 There is one Law-giver and Judge, who can make alive, and [can] destroy: but who art thou, that thou judgest thy neighbor ?
13 But what shall we say of those, who say: To-day or to-morrow we will go to such or such a city, and will abide there a year; and we will traffic, and get gain ?
14 And they know not what will be to-morrow: for what is our life, but an exhalation that is seen a little while, and then vanisheth and is gone ?
15 Whereas they should say: If the Lord please, and we live, we will do this or that.
16 They glory in their vaunting. All such glorying is evil.
17 He that knoweth the good, and doeth it not, to him is sin.
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