James 4.1-2
type: passage created: 2026-05-06 updated: 2026-05-06 book: James chapter: 4 verses: "1-2" translation_default: ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT tags: [scripture] citation_count: 1 enriched: false
Quoted in
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James 4.1-2
Book: James · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT
Immediate context (±2 verses)
ASV (ASV)
"1. Whence come wars and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? 2. Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not."
"3. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures. 4. Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God." (James 4:1-4, ASV)
WEB (WEB)
"1. Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2. You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask."
"3. You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures. 4. You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (James 4:1-4, WEB)
KJV (KJV)
"1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? fightings: or, brawlings lusts: or, pleasures 2. Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not."
"3. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. lusts: or, pleasures 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:1-4, KJV)
YLT (YLT)
"1. Whence [are] wars and fightings among you? not thence, out of your passions, that are as soldiers in your members? 2. ye desire, and ye have not; ye murder, and are zealous, and are not able to attain; ye fight and war, and ye have not, because of your not asking;"
"3. ye ask, and ye receive not, because evilly ye ask, that in your pleasures ye may spend [it]. 4. Adulterers and adulteresses! have ye not known that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whoever, then, may counsel to be a friend of the world, an enemy of God he is set." (James 4:1-4, YLT)
Setting
- Speaker: James the Just (the brother of Jesus, head of Jerusalem church)
- Audience: Jewish Christians in the dispersion
- Location: Jerusalem (composition)
- Time period: composed c. AD 45-49 (likely the earliest NT book)
Theological reading
Key words
No Strong's-tagged lexicon matches found in this passage. (Lexicon coverage is curated, ~159 of the most apologetically-loaded Greek/Hebrew terms.)
Why these four translations
ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.
The four:
- ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
- WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
- KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
- YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.
See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.