James 4:2 - Revised Standard Version (RSV-CI)

² You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

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.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

² You are jealous and covet [what others have] and your desires go unfulfilled; [so] you become murderers. [To hate is to murder as far as your hearts are concerned.] You burn with envy and anger and are not able to obtain [the gratification, the contentment, and the happiness that you seek], so you fight and war. You do not have, because you do not ask. [I John 3:15.]

American Standard Version (1901)

² Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not.

Common English Bible

² You long for something you don’t have, so you commit murder. You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight. You don’t have because you don’t ask.

Catholic Public Domain Version

² You desire, and you do not have. You envy and you kill, and you are unable to obtain. You argue and you fight, and you do not have, because you do not ask.

Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version

² You covet, and have not: you kill, and envy, and can not obtain. You contend and war, and you have not, because you ask not.

James 4:2 Cross References

1 Kings 21:6

And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it’; and he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’ ”

Proverbs 1:19

Such are the ways of all who get gain by violence; it takes away the life of its possessors.

Ecclesiastes 4:8

a person who has no one, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.

Isaiah 7:12

But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”

Habakkuk 2:5

Moreover, wine is treacherous; the arrogant man shall not abide. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations, and collects as his own all peoples.”

John 16:24

Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

John 4:10

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

James 1:5

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him.

James 5:6

You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you.

1 John 3:15

Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.