Yakobus 1:19

Living Out the Message

1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! ¹  Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.

Yakobus 2:1

Prejudice and the Law of Love

2:1 My brothers and sisters, ²  do not show prejudice ³  if you possess faith ⁴  in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵ 

Yakobus 2:3-4

2:3 do you pay attention to the one who is finely dressed and say, ⁶  “You sit here in a good place,” ⁷  and to the poor person, “You stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor”? ⁸  2:4 If so, have you not made distinctions ⁹  among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? ¹⁰ 

Yakobus 2:8

2:8 But if you fulfill the royal law as expressed in this scripture, ¹¹  “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” ¹²  you are doing well.

Yakobus 2:13

2:13 For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over ¹³  judgment.

[1:19]  ¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:1]  ² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:1]  ³ tn Or “partiality.”

[2:1]  ⁴ tn Grk “do not have faith with personal prejudice,” with emphasis on the last phrase.

[2:1]  ⁵ tn Grk “our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” Here δόξης (doxhs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[2:3]  ⁶ tn Grk “and you pay attention…and say,” continuing the “if” clauses from v. 2. In the Greek text, vv. 2-4 form one long sentence.

[2:3]  ⁷ tn Or “sit here, please.”

[2:3]  ⁸ tn Grk “sit under my footstool.” The words “on the floor” have been supplied in the translation to clarify for the modern reader the undesirability of this seating arrangement (so also TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). Another option followed by a number of translations is to replace “under my footstool” with “at my feet” (NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[2:4]  ⁹ tn Grk “have you not made distinctions” (as the conclusion to the series of “if” clauses in vv. 2-3).

[2:4]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “judges of evil reasonings.”

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn Grk “according to the scripture.”

[2:8]  ¹² sn A quotation from Lev 19:18 (also quoted in Matt 19:19; 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Rom 13:9; Gal 5:14).

[2:13]  ¹³ tn Grk “boasts against, exults over,” in victory.