James 4:3

James 4:3 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
• English Standard Version (ESV)You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
• New King James Version (NKJV)You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
• New Living Translation (NLT)And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

Context of James 4:3

1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?

James 4:3 word by word

αἰτεῖτε καὶ οὐ λαμβάνετε, διότι κακῶς αἰτεῖσθε, ἵνα ἐν ταῖς ἡδοναῖς ὑμῶν δαπανήσητε.Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Ye askαἰτέωaiteō · to askG154
• andκαίkai · andG2532
• receiveλαμβάνωlambanō · to takeG2983
• notοὐou · noG3756
• becauseδιότιdioti · becauseG1360
• amissκακῶςkakōs · badlyG2560
• thatἵναhina · in order that/toG2443
• ye may consumeδαπανάωdapanaō · to spendG1159
• uponἐνen · in/on/amongG1722
• yourσύsu · youG4771
• lustsὁho hē to · the/this/whoG3588
• lustsἡδονήhēdonē · pleasureG2237

Cross-references for James 4:3

• James 1:6But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
• Job 27:8For what hope have the godless when they are cut off, when God takes away their life?
• Job 35:12He does not answer when people cry out because of the arrogance of the wicked.
• Psalms 18:41They cried for help, but there was no one to save them— to the Lord, but he did not answer.
• Psalms 66:18If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;
• Proverbs 1:28“Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me,
• Proverbs 15:8The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.
• Proverbs 21:13Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered.
• Isaiah 1:15When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!
• Jeremiah 11:11Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.
• Jeremiah 14:12Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague.”
• Micah 3:4Then they will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.
• Zechariah 7:13“ ‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty.
• Matthew 20:22“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered.
• Mark 10:38“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
• 1 John 3:22and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.

Commentaries on James 4:3

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 3Ye ask, and receive not - Some think that this refers to their prayers for the conversion of the heathen; and on the pretense that they were not converted thus; they thought it lawful to extirpate them and possess their goods. Ye ask amiss - · Ye ask evilly, wickedly. Ye have not the proper dispositions of prayer, and ye have an improper object. Ye ask for worldly prosperity, that ye may employ it in riotous living. This is properly the meaning of the…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 3Ye ask, and receive not - That is, some of you ask, or you ask on some occasions. Though seeking in general what you desire by strife, and without regard to the rights of others, yet you sometimes pray. It is not uncommon for men who go to war to pray, or to procure the services of a chaplain to pray for them. It sometimes happens that the covetous and the quarrelsome; that those who live to wrong others, and who are fond of litigation, pray. Such men may…Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 33. Some of them are supposed to say in objection, But we do "ask" (pray); compare Jas 4:2. James replies, It is not enough to ask for good things, but we must ask with a good spirit and intention. "Ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it (your object of prayer) upon (literally, 'in') your lusts (literally, 'pleasures')"; not that ye may have the things you need for the service of God. Contrast Jas 1:5 with Mt 6:31,32. If ye prayed aright, all your proper…Read the comment

Topics related to James 4:3

• Lust
• Sin
• Wicked (People)

In the dictionaries

• Adulterer
• Amiss
• Consume
• Enmity
• Flee
• Hence
• Lust
• Resist
• Sin
• Unruly

Commentaries on James 4

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings