My brethren, {Or, do ye, in accepting persons, hold the faith glory?}hold not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
For if there come into your {Or, assembly Compare Hebrews 10:25 (Greek)}synagogue a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, and there come in also a poor man in vile clothing;
and ye have regard to him that weareth the fine clothing, and say, Sit thou here in a good place; and ye say to the poor man, Stand thou there, or sit under my footstool;
{Or, are ye not divided}do ye not make distinctions {Or, in your own mind}among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
Hearken, my beloved brethren; did not God choose them that are poor as to the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to them that love him?
But ye have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you, and themselves drag you before the judgment-seats?
Do not they blaspheme the honorable name {Greek: which was called upon you? See Acts 15:17.}by which ye are called?
Howbeit if ye fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, {Leviticus 19:18.}Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well:
but if ye have respect of persons, ye commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all.
For he that said, {Exodus 20:13 f. Deuteronomy 5:17 f. }Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou dost not commit adultery, but killest, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
So speak ye, and so do, as men that are to be judged by a law of liberty.
For judgment is without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy: mercy glorieth against judgment.
What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food,
and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit?
Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself.
{Or, But some one will say}Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will show thee my faith.
Thou believest that {Some ancient authorities read there is one God.}God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?
{Or, Seest thou…perfect?}Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect;
and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, {Genesis 15:6}And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; {Isaiah 41:8; 2 Chronicles 20:7}and he was called the friend of God.
Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.
And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
Querverweise zu Jakobus 2,6 Jak 2,6
and ye have regard to him that weareth the fine clothing, and say, Sit thou here in a good place; and ye say to the poor man, Stand thou there, or sit under my footstool;
Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous one; he doth not resist you.
Ye put to shame the counsel of the poor, {Or, But}Because Jehovah is his refuge.
For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor;He hath violently taken away a house, {Or, which he builded not}and he shall not build it up.
And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, according as it was written in the letters which she had sent unto them.
They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth {Or, at the head of}on high among the people.
And the two men, the base fellows, came in and sat before him: and the base fellows bare witness against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did {Or, renounce}curse God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him to death with stones.
He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker;But he that hath mercy on the needy honoreth him.
In the pride of the wicked {Or, he doth hotly pursue the poor}the poor {Hebrew: is set on fire.}is hotly pursued; {Or, They are taken}Let them be taken in the devices that they have conceived.
And as they spake unto the people, {Some ancient authorities read the chief priests.}the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them,
being sore troubled because they taught the people, and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
And they laid hands on them, and put them in ward unto the morrow: for it was now eventide.
Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker;And he that is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished.
He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages;In the secret places doth he murder the innocent;His eyes are privily set against the {Or, hapless}helpless.
The kings of the earth set themselves in array,And the rulers were gathered together,Against the Lord, and against his {Greek: Christ.}Anointed:
for of a truth in this city against thy holy {Or, Child See marginal note on chapter 3:13.}Servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the {Greek: nations.}Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together,
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy council foreordained to come to pass.
Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
{Another reading is, And being crushed.}He croucheth, he boweth down,And the {Or, hapless}helpless fall by his strong ones.
But the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy,
Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest {Or, travail and grief}mischief and spite, {Or, to take it into thy hand}to requite it with thy hand:The {Or, hapless}helpless committeth himself unto thee;Thou hast been the helper of the fatherless.
and laid hands on the apostles, and put them in public ward.
He was despised, and {Or, forsaken}rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with {Hebrew: sickness.}grief: and {Or, he hid as it were his face from us}as one from whom men hide their face he was despised; and we esteemed him not.
Because of the oppression of the poor, because of the sighing of the needy,Now will I arise, saith Jehovah;I will set him in the safety he panteth for.
Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them, but without violence; for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned.
Jesus answered, I have not a demon; but I honor my Father, and ye dishonor me.
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his gain,And he that giveth to the rich, shall come only to want.
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them,
What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the {Or, congregation}church of God, and put them to shame that {Or, have nothing}have not? What shall I say to you? {Or, shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.}shall I praise you? In this I praise you not.
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in {Or, the state}a province, marvel not at the matter: for one higher than the high regardeth; and there are higher than they.
But the Jews urged on the devout women of honorable estate, and the chief men of the city, and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and cast them out of their borders.
Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and the princes thereof: It is ye that have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses:
But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was {Greek: come out.}gone, they laid hold on Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers,
what mean ye that ye crush my people, and grind the face of the poor? saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.
and when they had brought them unto the {Greek: praetors: compare verses 22, 35, 36, 38.}magistrates, they said, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes—
And when they found them not, they dragged Jason and certain brethren before the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned {Greek: the inhabited earth.}the world upside down are come hither also;
they that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father go unto the same maiden, to profane my holy name:
But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment-seat,
Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, that oppress the poor, that crush the needy, that say unto their lords, Bring, and let us drink.
Forasmuch therefore as ye trample upon the poor, and take exactions from him of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink the wine thereof.
Hear this, O ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,
saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? and the sabbath, that we may {Hebrew: open.}set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?
For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
Thou {Or, hast pierced}didst pierce with his own staves the head of his {Or, hordes Or, villages}warriors:They came as a whirlwind to scatter me;Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.
and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.