James 4:13
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:
James 4:13 in other translations
| BSB | Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.” |
|---|---|
| WEB | Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” |
| ASV | Come now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain: |
| YLT | Go, now, ye who are saying, ‘To-day and to-morrow we will go on to such a city, and will pass there one year, and traffic, and make gain;' |
| DARBY | Go to now, ye who say, To-day or to-morrow will we go into such a city and spend a year there, and traffic and make gain, |
| BBE | How foolish it is to say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this town, and be there for a year and do business there and get wealth: |
| Webster | Come 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: |
What does James 4:13 mean?
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain
Barnes' Notes
Ye that say. You that form your plans in this manner, or that speak thus confidently of what you will do in the future. The word say here probably refers to what was in their thoughts, rather than to what was openly expressed.
To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city. That is, they say this without any proper sense of the uncertainty of life, and of their absolute dependence on God.
And continue there a year. Fixing a definite time; designating the exact period during which they would remain, and when they would leave, without any reference to the will of God. The apostle undoubtedly means to refer here to this as a mere specimen of what he would reprove. It cannot be supposed that he refers to this single case alone as wrong. All plans are wrong that are formed in the same spirit. "The practice to which the apostle here alludes," says the editor of the Pictorial Bible, "is very common in the East to this day, among a very respectable and intelligent class of merchants. They convey the products of one place to some distant city, where they remain until they have disposed of their own goods and have purchased others suitable for another distant market; and thus the operation is repeated, until, after a number of years, the trader is enabled to return prosperously to his home. Or again, a shopkeeper or a merchant takes only the first step in this process--conveying to a distant town, where the best purchases of his own line are to be made, such goods as are likely to realize a profit, and returning, without any farther stop, with a stock for his own concern. These operations are seldom very rapid, as the adventurer likes to wait opportunities for making advantageous bargains; and sometimes opens a shop in the place to which he comes, to sell by retail the goods which he has bought." The practice is common in India. See Roberts' Oriental Illustrations.
And buy and sell, and get gain. It is not improbable that there is an allusion here to the commercial habits of the Jews at the time when the apostle wrote. Many of them were engaged in foreign traffic, and for this purpose made long journeys to distant trading cities, as Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, etc.--BloomSeld.
(6) "go to" or, "come"
Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on James 4:11-17
Our lips must be governed by the law of kindness, as well as truth and justice. Christians are brethren. And to break God's commands, is to speak evil of them, and to judge them, as if they laid too great a restraint upon us. We have the law of God, which is a rule to all; let us not presume to set up our own notions and opinions as a rule to those about us, and let us be careful that we be not condemned of the…
James 4:13 in the original Greek
Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.
Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).
Cross references for James 4:13
- Proverbs 27:1
Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
- Luke 12:17-20
And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
- Genesis 11:3-4
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
- Ecclesiastes 2:1
I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.
- Isaiah 24:2
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
- James 5:1
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
- Isaiah 56:11-12
Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.
- Ezekiel 7:12
The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
- Genesis 11:7
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
- 1 Corinthians 7:30
And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
- Isaiah 5:5
And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Context
- James 4:12
There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
- James 4:13
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:
- James 4:14
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.
James 4:13 in other languages
| Spanish Reina-Valera 1909 | Ea ahora, los que decís: Hoy y mañana iremos á tal ciudad, y estaremos allá un año, y compraremos mercadería, y ganaremos: |
|---|---|
| French Bible J.N. Darby 1885 | À vous maintenant, qui dites: Aujourd’hui ou demain nous irons dans telle ou telle ville, et nous y passerons une année, et nous trafiquerons et nous gagnerons, |
| German Elberfelder 1871 | Wohlan denn, die ihr saget: Heute oder morgen wollen wir in die und die Stadt gehen und daselbst ein Jahr zubringen und Handel treiben und Gewinn machen; |
| Latin Clementine Vulgate | Tu autem quis es, qui judicas proximum? Ecce nunc qui dicitis: Hodie, aut crastino ibimus in illam civitatem, et faciemus ibi quidem annum, et mercabimur, et lucrum faciemus: |