the Fourth Week after Easter
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
American Standard Version
James 4:9
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- BridgewayEncyclopedias:
- InternationalParallel Translations
Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Bee afflicted, and mourne, and weepe: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your ioy to heauinesse.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.
Be sad, cry, and weep! Change your laughter into crying and your joy into sadness.
Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
Be sad and sorry and weep. Stop laughing and start crying. Be gloomy instead of glad.
Wail, mourn, sob! Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom!
Be wretched, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and [your] joy to heaviness.
Be sad, be sorry, and cry! Change your laughter into crying. Change your joy into sadness.
Suffer afflictions, and sorrowe ye, and weepe: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your ioy into heauinesse.
Humble yourselves, and mourn; let your laughter be turned to weeping, and your joy to sorrow.
Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom!
Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloominess.
Be distressed, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy into shame.
Be miserable and grieve and weep [over your sin]. Let your [foolish] laughter be turned to mourning and your [reckless] joy to gloom.
Be troubled, with sorrow and weeping; let your laughing be turned to sorrow and your joy to grief.
Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.Matthew 5:4;">[xr]
Be humbled and sorrowful, and let your laughter be turned into grief, and your gladness into anxiety.
Humble yourselves, and mourn: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into grief.
Suffer afflictions, and mourne, and weepe: Let your laughter be turned to mournyng, and your ioy to heauinesse.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness.
Afflict yourselves and mourn and weep aloud; let your laughter be turned into grief, and your gladness into shame.
Be ye wretchis, and weile ye; youre leiyyng be turned in to weping, and ioye in to sorewe of herte.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and [your] joy to heaviness.
Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair.
Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.
Be sorry for your sins and cry because of them. Be sad and do not laugh. Let your joy be turned to sorrow.
Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.
Be miserable and lament and weep, let, your laughter, into lamentation, be turned, and, your joy, into dejection;
Be afflicted and mourn and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into sorrow.
Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection.
Suffre affliccios: sorowe ye and wepe. Let youre laughter be turned to mornynge and youre ioye to hevynes.
be exceeding afflicted, and mourn, and weep, let your laughter to mourning be turned, and the joy to heaviness;
Suffre affliccions: sorowe ye and wepe. Let youre laughter be turned to mornynge, and youre ioye to heuynes.
be afflicted, be mournful, and weep: let your mirth be converted to sadness, and your joy to vexation.
The way you've been living should break your heart. Them old ways you used to love ought to bring you pain.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
afflicted: James 5:1, James 5:2, Psalms 119:67, Psalms 119:71, Psalms 119:136, Psalms 126:5, Psalms 126:6, Ecclesiastes 7:2-5, Isaiah 22:12, Isaiah 22:13, Jeremiah 31:9, Jeremiah 31:13, Jeremiah 31:18-20, Ezekiel 7:16, Ezekiel 16:63, Zechariah 12:10-14, Matthew 5:4, Luke 6:21, 2 Corinthians 7:10, 2 Corinthians 7:11
let: Job 30:31, Proverbs 14:13, Ecclesiastes 2:2, Ecclesiastes 7:6, Lamentations 5:15, Luke 6:25, Luke 16:25, Revelation 18:7, Revelation 18:8
Reciprocal: Leviticus 23:27 - afflict Judges 2:4 - the people 2 Samuel 12:22 - I fasted 2 Chronicles 7:14 - humble Esther 5:9 - joyful Job 20:18 - and he shall Proverbs 19:10 - Delight Ecclesiastes 3:4 - time to weep Jeremiah 6:26 - make thee Jeremiah 50:4 - going Daniel 10:2 - I Daniel Joel 1:8 - Lament Joel 2:12 - with fasting Malachi 3:14 - and that Matthew 5:3 - the poor Luke 7:38 - weeping 2 Corinthians 7:7 - mourning 1 Peter 1:6 - ye are
Cross-References
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
And Jehovah said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: am I my brother's keeper?
And now cursed art thou from the ground, which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;
And Cain said unto Jehovah, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth; and it will come to pass, that whosoever findeth me will slay me.
and they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, This have we found: know now whether it is thy son's coat or not.
For he that maketh inquisition for blood remembereth them; He forgetteth not the cry of the poor.
He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper; But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep,.... Not in a bare external way; not by afflicting the body with fastings and scourgings, by renting of garments, and clothing with sackcloth, and putting ashes on the head, and other such outward methods of humiliation; but afflicting the soul is meant, an inward mourning and weeping over the plague of the heart, the impurity of nature, and the various sins of life; after a godly sort, and because contrary to a God of infinite love and grace; in an evangelical way, looking to Jesus, and being affected with the pardoning grace and love of God in Christ.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness; meaning their carnal joy, on account of their friendship with the world, and their enjoyment of the things of it, since they consumed them on their lusts, and which betrayed enmity to God.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep - That is, evidently, on account of your sins. The sins to which the apostle refers are those which he had specified in the previous part of the chapter, and which he had spoken of as so evil in their nature, and so dangerous in their tendency. The word rendered “be afflicted” means, properly, to endure toil or hardship; then to endure affliction or distress; and here means, that they were to afflict themselves - that is, they were to feel distressed and sad on account of their transgressions. Compare Ezra 8:21. The other words in this clause are those which are expressive of deep grief or sorrow. The language here used shows that the apostle supposed that it was possible that those who had done wrong should voluntarily feel sorrow for it, and that, therefore, it was proper to call upon them to do it.
(All who feel true sorrow for sin, do so voluntarily; but it is not intended by this assertion to insinuate that repentance is not the work of the Spirit. He operates on men without destroying their freedom, or doing violence to their will: “in the day of his power they are willing.” Nor is it improper to call on men to do that for which they require the Spirit’s aid. That aid is not withheld in the hour of need; and everywhere the Bible commands sinners to believe and repent.)
Let your laughter be turned to mourning - It would seem that the persons referred to, instead of suitable sorrow and humiliation on account of sin, gave themselves to joyousness, mirth, and revelry. See a similar instance in Isaiah 22:12-13. It is often the case, that those for whom the deep sorrows of repentance would be peculiarly appropriate, give themselves to mirth and vanity. The apostle here says that such mirth did not become them. Sorrow, deep and unfeigned, was appropriate on account of their sins, and the sound of laughter and of revelry should be changed to notes of lamentation. To how many of the assemblies of the vain, the gay, and the dissipated, might the exhortation in this passage with propriety be now addressed!
Your joy to heaviness - The word here rendered heaviness occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means dejection, sorrow. It is not gloom, melancholy, or moroseness, but it is sorrow on account of sin. God has so made us that we should feel sorrow when we are conscious that we have done wrong, and it is appropriate that we should do so.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. Be afflicted, and mourn — Without true and deep repentance ye cannot expect the mercy of God.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning — It appears most evidently that many of those to whom St. James addressed this epistle had lived a very irregular and dissolute life. He had already spoken of their lust, and pleasures, and he had called them adulterers and adulteresses; and perhaps they were so in the grossest sense of the words. He speaks here of their laughter and their joy; and all the terms taken together show that a dissolute life is intended. What a strange view must he have of the nature of primitive Christianity, who can suppose that these words can possibly have been addressed to people professing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who were few in number, without wealth or consequence, and were persecuted and oppressed both by their brethren the Jews and by the Romans!
