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:
Parallel translations
- 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.”
- 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.”
- NKJV Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;
- NASB Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”
- NLT Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
James rebukes those who confidently plan their business future as if it were guaranteed. Presumptuous planning ignores our dependence on God.
Overview
Turning to merchants, James quotes their self-assured talk of choosing cities, durations, and profits without reference to God. The fault is not planning itself but the arrogant assumption of control over a future that belongs to God. This sets up his correction in the following verses, reminding readers that life and its outcomes rest in the Lord's hands.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Prov 27:1Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
- Luke 12:17–20And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
- Gen 11:3–4And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
- Eccl 2:1I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.
- Isa 56:11–12Yea, 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.
- Isa 24:2And 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.
- Ezek 7:12The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
- Jas 5:1Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
- Isa 5:5And 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:
- Gen 11:7Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
- 1 Cor 7:30And 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;
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Christ at the center
The wisdom from above and the royal law of love are the life of those who belong to 'our glorious Lord Jesus Christ' — faith in him made visible in works.
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Original language
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