James 2:4

Amplified Bible

have you not discriminated among yourselves, and become judges with wrong motives?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

King James Version (1611)
Are yee not then partiall in your selues, and are become iudges of euill thoughts?

King James Version
Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

English Standard Version
have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

New American Standard Bible
have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

New Century Version
What are you doing? You are making some people more important than others, and with evil thoughts you are deciding that one person is better.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

Berean Standard Bible
have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Contemporary English Version
That is the same as saying that some people are better than others, and you would be acting like a crooked judge.

Complete Jewish Bible
then aren't you creating distinctions among yourselves, and haven't you made yourselves into judges with evil motives?

Darby Translation
have ye not made a difference among yourselves, and become judges having evil thoughts?

Easy-to-Read Version
Doesn't this show that you think some people are more important than others? You set yourselves up as judges—judges who make bad decisions.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Are yee not partiall in your selues, and are become iudges of euill thoughts?

George Lamsa Translation
Are you not then showing partiality, and thereby give preference to evil thoughts?

Good News Translation
then you are guilty of creating distinctions among yourselves and of making judgments based on evil motives.

Lexham English Bible
have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Literal Translation
did you not also make a difference among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

American Standard Version
do ye not make distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

Bible in Basic English
Is there not a division in your minds? have you not become judges with evil thoughts?

Hebrew Names Version
haven't you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

International Standard Version
you have made false distinctions among yourselves and have become judges with evil motives, haven't you?

Etheridge Translation
behold, are you not divided in yourselves, and become separaters for evil reasons ?

Murdock Translation
are ye not divided among yourselves, and become expositors of evil thoughts?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Are ye not partiall in your selues, and are made iudges of euyll thoughtes?

English Revised Version
are ye not divided in your own mind, and become judges with evil thoughts?

World English Bible
haven't you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Stand thou there, or, Sit thou here under my footstool, Ye distinguish not in yourselves, but are become evil-reasoning judges.

Weymouth's New Testament
is it not plain that in your hearts you have little faith, seeing that you have become judges full of wrong thoughts?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and ben maad domesmen of wickid thouytis?

Update Bible Version
Don't you make distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

Webster's Bible Translation
Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

New English Translation
If so, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?

New King James Version
have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

New Living Translation
doesn't this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?

New Life Bible
are you not thinking that one is more important than the other? This kind of thinking is sinful.

New Revised Standard
have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Would ye not have been led to make distinctions among yourselves, and have become judges with wicked reasonings?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Do you not judge within yourselves, and are become judges of unjust thoughts?

Revised Standard Version
have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
are ye not parciall in youre selves and have iudged after evyll thoughtes?

Young's Literal Translation
ye did not judge fully in yourselves, and did become ill-reasoning judges.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
are ye not parciall in youre selues, and haue iudged after euyll thoughtes?

Mace New Testament (1729)
have not you made an arbitrary distinction, don't your judgments flow from a vicious principle?

Simplified Cowboy Version
If you do, then you are judgin' wrongly and you ain't no better'n a coyote.

Contextual Overview

¹My fellow believers, do not practice your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of partiality [toward people—show no favoritism, no prejudice, no snobbery]. ²For if a man comes into your meeting place wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in, ³and you pay special attention to the one who wears the fine clothes, and say to him, "You sit here in this good seat," and you tell the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down [on the floor] by my footstool," ⁴have you not discriminated among yourselves, and become judges with wrong motives?⁵Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters: has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and [as believers to be] heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? ⁶But you [in contrast] have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress and exploit you, and personally drag you into the courts of law? ⁷Do they not blaspheme the precious name [of Christ] by which you are called?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

partial: James 1:1-27, Job 34:19, Malachi 2:9

judges: James 4:11, Job 21:27, Psalms 58:1, Psalms 82:2, Psalms 109:31, Matthew 7:1-5, John 7:24

Reciprocal: Proverbs 24:23 - It Mark 7:21 - evil John 8:15 - judge Acts 4:19 - judge Acts 10:34 - Of a Romans 14:13 - judge one James 3:17 - without

Cross-References

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God (Elohim) created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:4
God saw that the light was good (pleasing, useful) and He affirmed and sustained it; and God separated the light [distinguishing it] from the darkness.

Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them [granting them certain authority] and said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subjugate it [putting it under your power]; and rule over (dominate) the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth."

Genesis 1:31
God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good and He validated it completely. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Genesis 2:1
So the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts (inhabitants).

Genesis 2:2
And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

Genesis 5:1
This is the book (the written record, the history) of the generations of [the descendants of] Adam. When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness].

Genesis 10:1
These are the records of the generations (descendants) of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and the sons born to them after the flood:

Genesis 11:10
These are the records of the generations of Shem [from whom Abraham descended]. Shem was a hundred years old when he became the father of Arpachshad, two years after the flood.

Genesis 25:12
Now these are the records of the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham;

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Are ye not then partial in yourselves,.... That is, guilty of such partiality as must appear to yourselves, and your own consciences must accuse you of; or do not ye distinguish, or make a difference among yourselves, by such a conduct, towards the rich and the poor:

and are become judges of evil thoughts; or "are distinguishers by evil thoughts"; that is, make a distinction between the rich and the poor, by an evil way of thinking, that one is better than the other, and to be preferred before him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Are ye not then partial in yourselves? - Among yourselves. Do you not show that you are partial?

And are become judges of evil thoughts - There has been considerable difference of opinion respecting this passage, yet the sense seems not to be difficult. There are two ideas in it: one is, that they showed by this conduct that they took it upon themselves to be judges, to pronounce on the character of men who were strangers, and on their claims to respect (Compare Matthew 7:1); the other is, that in doing this, they were not guided by just rules, but that they did it under the influence of improper “thoughts.” They did it not from benevolence; not from a desire to do justice to all according to their moral character; but from that improper feeling which leads us to show honor to men on account of their external appearance, rather than their real worth. The wrong in the case was in their presuming to “judge” these strangers at all, as they practically did by making this distinction, and then by doing it under the influence of such an unjust rule of judgment. The sense is, that we have no right to form a decisive judgment of men on their first appearance, as we do when we treat one with respect and the other not; and that when we make up our opinion in regard to them, it should be by some other means of judging than the question whether they can wear gold rings, and dress well, or not. Beza and Doddridge render this, “ye become judges who reason ill.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse James 2:4. Are ye not then partial — ου διεκριθητε. Do ye not make a distinction, though the case has not been heard, and the law has not decided?

Judges of evil thoughts? — κριται διαλογισμων πονηρων. Judges of evil reasonings; that is, judges who reason wickedly; who, in effect, say in your hearts, we will espouse the cause of the rich, because they can befriend us; we will neglect that of the poor, because they cannot help us, nor have they power to hurt us.