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.
• New International Version (NIV)When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
• 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.

Context of James 4:3

1Where do quarrels and conflicts among you come from? Don’t they come from this, namely your passions that battle within your body parts? 2You crave and have not. You murder and you envy, yet you cannot get it. You fight and you wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives so you may spend it on your passions. 4You adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you think that in vain the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit which He made 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 let him ask in faith, without any doubting—for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
• Job 27:8For what hope has the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes his soul?
• Job 35:12There they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of the wicked.
• Psalms 18:41You also made my enemies turn their backs to me. I cut off those who hate me.
• Psalms 66:18If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
• Proverbs 1:28Then they will cry out to me, but I will not answer! They will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.
• Proverbs 15:8The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Adonai, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.
• Proverbs 21:13Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, will also cry out but not be answered.
• Isaiah 1:15When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you. When you multiply prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood!”
• Jeremiah 11:11Therefore thus says Adonai. “I will soon bring a disaster on them that they will not be able to escape. They will cry out to Me, yet I will not listen to them.
• Jeremiah 14:12If they fast, I will not hear their cry. If they offer burnt offering or grain offering, I will not accept them. Instead I will consume them with sword, with famine and with plague.”
• Micah 3:4Then they will cry out to Adonai, but He will not answer them. Thus He will hide His face from them at that time, because of their evil deeds.
• Zechariah 7:13It came about that just as He called and they did not listen, so they would call and I would not listen,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
• Matthew 20:22But Yeshua replied, “You don’t know what you’re asking! Are you able to drink the cup I am about to drink?” “We are able,” they say to Him.
• Mark 10:38But Yeshua answered them, “You don’t know what you’re asking! Are you able to drink the cup I drink, or endure the immersion I must endure?”
• 1 John 3:22and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.

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