Home › Bible verses › James 4:14
James 4:14
“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
James 4:14, King James Version (KJV)
“Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
World English Bible (WEB)
James 4 (KJV)
- 1From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
- 2Ye 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.
- 3Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
- 4Ye 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.
- 5Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
- 6But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
- 7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
- 8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
- 9Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
- 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
- 11Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
- 12There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
- 13Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
- 14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
- 15For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
- 16But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
- 17Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Related verses
Passages that readers often connect with James 4:14, in the King James Version.
1 Peter 1:24
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
Psalm 39:5
Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
1 John 2:17
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Psalm 102:3
For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
Job 7:6–7
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope. …
Job 14:1–2
Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. …
More verses about life
Study James 4:14 in the app
Read it in the NIV, ESV and 13 more Bibles, see every related verse, and ask what it means. Join the waitlist and we’ll email you once, at launch.
1769 standardized text (eBible.org eng-kjv). Public domain outside the United Kingdom. Text courtesy of the Crosswire Bible Society and eBible.org. World English Bible Protestant Edition (eBible engwebp, 2026-09-15 snapshot). Public domain. World English Bible is a trademark of eBible.org. Text unmodified; footnotes and formatting omitted. Related verses: OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0), from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.