James 1:20

George Lamsa Translation

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

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.

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.

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].

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

¹⁹ Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, and slow to speak, and slow to anger: ²⁰ For the wrath of man does not bring about the righteousness of God. ²¹ Wherefore cast away all filthiness, and all the multitude of evil things, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. ²² But you be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. ²³ For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man who sees his face in a mirror; ²⁴ For he sees himself and goes his way, and forgets how he looked. ²⁵ But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and abides in it, is not merely a hearer of the word which can be forgotten but a doer of the work, and this man shall be blessed in his work. ²⁶ If any man thinks that he ministers to God, and does not control his tongue, he deceives his own heart, and this man''s ministry is in vain. ²⁷ For a pure and holy ministry before God, the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the 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 firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament; and it was so.

Genesis 1:14
Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.

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

Genesis 1:24
Then God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind; and it was so.

Genesis 1:25
And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps upon the earth after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:30
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food; and it was so.

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

Genesis 8:17
Bring forth with you every beast of every kind that is with you, both fowl and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth; that they may breed abundantly on the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon the face of the earth.

1 Kings 4:33
And he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even to the, hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts and of fowl and of creeping things and of fishes.

Psalms 148:10
Wild beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl,

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.