James 1:20

Amplified Bible

for the [resentful, deep-seated] anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God [that standard of behavior which He requires from us].

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.

King James Version (1611)
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousnesse of God.

King James Version
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

English Standard Version
for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

New American Standard Bible
for a man's anger does not bring about the righteousness of God.

New Century Version
because anger will not help you live the right kind of life God wants.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Berean Standard Bible
for man's anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires.

Contemporary English Version
If you are angry, you cannot do any of the good things that God wants done.

Complete Jewish Bible
for a person's anger does not accomplish God's righteousness!

Darby Translation
for man's wrath does not work God's righteousness.

Easy-to-Read Version
Anger does not help you live the way God wants.

Geneva Bible (1587)
For the wrath of man doeth not accomplish the righteousnesse of God.

George Lamsa Translation
For the wrath of man does not bring about the righteousness of God.

Good News Translation
Human anger does not achieve God's righteous purpose.

Lexham English Bible
for human anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God.

Literal Translation
For the wrath of man does not work out the righteousness of God.

American Standard Version
for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Bible in Basic English
For the righteousness of God does not come about by the wrath of man.

Hebrew Names Version
for the anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God.

International Standard Version
For human anger does not produce God's righteousness.

Etheridge Translation
for the wrath of man the righteousness of Aloha worketh not.

Murdock Translation
for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For the wrath of man, worketh not that which is ryghteous before God.

English Revised Version
for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

World English Bible
for the anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Weymouth's New Testament
For a man's anger does not lead to action which God regards as righteous.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
for the wraththe of man worchith not the riytwisnesse of God.

Update Bible Version
for the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God.

Webster's Bible Translation
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

New English Translation
For human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness.

New King James Version
for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

New Living Translation
Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.

New Life Bible
A man's anger does not allow him to be right with God.

New Revised Standard
for your anger does not produce God's righteousness.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, man's anger, worketh not, God's righteousness.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God.

Revised Standard Version
for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For the wrath of man worketh not that which is ryghteous before God.

Young's Literal Translation
for the wrath of a man the righteousness of God doth not work;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For the wrath of ma worketh not that which is righteous before God.

Mace New Testament (1729)
for he that is not dispassionate is a stranger to the practice of true virtue.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Livin' and ridin' right don't include a quick fuse or sharp tongue.

Contextual Overview

¹⁹Understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Let everyone be quick to hear [be a careful, thoughtful listener], slow to speak [a speaker of carefully chosen words and], slow to anger [patient, reflective, forgiving]; ²⁰for the [resentful, deep-seated] anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God [that standard of behavior which He requires from us].²¹So get rid of all uncleanness and all that remains of wickedness, and with a humble spirit receive the word [of God] which is implanted [actually rooted in your heart], which is able to save your souls. ²²But prove yourselves doers of the word [actively and continually obeying God's precepts], and not merely listeners [who hear the word but fail to internalize its meaning], deluding yourselves [by unsound reasoning contrary to the truth]. ²³For if anyone only listens to the word without obeying it, he is like a man who looks very carefully at his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he immediately forgets what he looked like. ²⁵But he who looks carefully into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and faithfully abides by it, not having become a [careless] listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he will be blessed and favored by God in what he does [in his life of obedience]. ²⁶If anyone thinks himself to be religious [scrupulously observant of the rituals of his faith], and does not control his tongue but deludes his own heart, this person's religion is worthless (futile, barren). ²⁷Pure and unblemished religion [as it is expressed in outward acts] in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit and look after the fatherless and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the [secular] world.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

James 3:17, James 3:18, Numbers 20:11, Numbers 20:12, 2 Timothy 2:24, 2 Timothy 2:25

Reciprocal: Genesis 31:36 - was wroth Joshua 7:19 - My son Judges 8:2 - What 1 Samuel 20:30 - Saul's 1 Samuel 25:13 - Gird ye 2 Samuel 19:43 - the words 1 Kings 6:7 - neither hammer Psalms 37:8 - Cease Proverbs 15:18 - he Proverbs 17:19 - loveth Ecclesiastes 9:17 - General Joel 2:13 - slow Jonah 4:4 - Doest thou well to be angry Matthew 5:9 - are Mark 9:50 - have peace Luke 9:54 - wilt Philippians 2:14 - disputings Colossians 3:8 - anger Titus 1:7 - not soon Titus 3:2 - gentle Hebrews 11:25 - Choosing

Cross-References

Genesis 1:7
And God made the expanse [of sky] and separated the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so [just as He commanded].

Genesis 1:14
Then God said, "Let there be light-bearers (sun, moon, stars) in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be useful for signs (tokens) [of God's provident care], and for marking seasons, days, and years;

Genesis 1:22
And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."

Genesis 1:24
Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to (limited to, consistent with) their kind: livestock, crawling things, and wild animals of the earth according to their kinds"; and it was so [because He had spoken them into creation].

Genesis 1:25
So God made the wild animals of the earth according to their kind, and the cattle according to their kind, and everything that creeps and crawls on the earth according to its kind; and God saw that it was good (pleasing, useful) and He affirmed and sustained it.

Genesis 1:30
and to all the animals on the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that moves on the ground—to everything in which there is the breath of life—I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so [because He commanded it].

Genesis 2:19
So the LORD God formed out of the ground every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

Genesis 8:17
"Bring out with you every living thing from all flesh—birds and animals and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth—that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."

1 Kings 4:33
He spoke of trees, from the cedar which is in Lebanon to the hyssop [vine] that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and fish.

Psalms 148:10
Beasts and all cattle; Creeping things and winged birds;

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. This is so far from engaging persons to do that which is right and acceptable in the sight of God, that it puts them upon doing that which is evil. The Alexandrian copy reads, "with the wrath of men do not work the righteousness of God"; do not attend upon the word and ordinances of God with a wrathful spirit. Compare, with this, 1 Timothy 2:8.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God - Does not produce in the life that righteousness which God requires. Its tendency is not to incline us to keep the law, but to break it; not to induce us to embrace the truth, but the opposite. The meaning of this passage is not that our wrath will make God either more or less righteous; but that its tendency is not to produce that upright course of life, and love of truth, which God requires. A man is never sure of doing right under the influence of excited feelings; he may do that which is in the highest sense wrong, and which he will regret all his life. The particular meaning of this passage is, that wrath in the mind of man will not have any tendency to make him righteous. It is only that candid state of mind which will lead him to embrace the truth which can be hoped to have such an effect.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 20. The wrath of man — A furious zeal in matters of religion is detestable in the sight of God; he will have no sacrifice that is not consumed by fire from his own altar. The zeal that made the Papists persecute and burn the Protestants, was kindled in hell. This was the wrath of man, and did not work any righteous act for God; nor was it the means of working righteousness in others; the bad fruit of a bad tree. And do they still vindicate these cruelties? Yes: for still they maintain that no faith is to be kept with heretics, and they acknowledge the inquisition.