James 4:14

Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!

(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.

In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

“I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass?

Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.”

Don’t put your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no help.

The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ—

For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;

Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.”

Therefore you are great, Yahweh God. For there is no one like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

I am eighty years old, today. Can I discern between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear the voice of singing men and singing women any more? Why then should your servant be a burden to my lord the king?

Yahweh, there is no one like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.

My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.

There is no one like you among the gods, Lord, nor any deeds like your deeds.

As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me.

Yahweh says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

For whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, and mother.”

Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

For this time I will send all my plagues against your heart, against your officials, and against your people; that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.

“There is no one like God, Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens for your help, in his excellency on the skies.

Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his strength gone.

Now king David was old and advanced in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he couldn’t keep warm.

But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of Yahweh shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish— vanish like smoke.

“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.

He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.

In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry.

The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman who fears Yahweh, she shall be praised.

Therefore I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?

For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them;”

This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.

“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.

and said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

For I say through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith.

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving,

But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.

instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age;

not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”

The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years.

Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and evil. They have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”

I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?

“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

Your statutes have been my songs in the house where I live.

For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?

To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?

But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;

The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever.

“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.

He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.

and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away.

and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away.

He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death.

Pharaoh said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Let it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like Yahweh our God.

Barzillai said to the king, “How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?

For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.

I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust.

But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow, because he doesn’t fear God.

My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’

Now, behold, I go bound by the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there;

But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.

Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men!