(A)You ask and do not receive, (B)because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. [a]Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that (C)friendship with the world is enmity with God? (D)Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

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Footnotes

  1. James 4:4 NU omits Adulterers and

You ask and (A)do not receive, because you ask [a]with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request [b]on your pleasures. You (B)adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with (C)the world is (D)hostility toward God? (E)Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

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Footnotes

  1. James 4:3 Lit wrongly
  2. James 4:3 Lit in

You ask [God for something] and do not receive it, because you ask [a]with wrong motives [out of selfishness or with an unrighteous agenda], so that [when you get what you want] you may spend it on your [hedonistic] desires. You adulteresses [disloyal sinners—flirting with the world and breaking your vow to God]! Do you not know that being the world’s friend [that is, loving the things of the world] is being God’s enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

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Footnotes

  1. James 4:3 Lit wrongly.

When you ask, you do not receive,(A) because you ask with wrong motives,(B) that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

You adulterous(C) people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world(D) means enmity against God?(E) Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.(F)

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Footnotes

  1. James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.