Come, you men of riches, bemoan yourselves and cry aloud over the miseries that are to overtake you.

Corruption has fallen on your riches; all the fine clothes are left moth-eaten,

and the gold and silver have long lain rusting. That rust will bear witness against you, will bite into your flesh like flame. These are the last days given you, and you have spent them in heaping up a store of retribution.✻

You have kept back the pay of the workmen who reaped your lands, and it is there to cry out against you; the Lord of hosts has listened to their complaint.

You have feasted here on earth, you have comforted your hearts with luxuries on this day that dooms you to slaughter.

You have condemned and murdered the innocent man, while he offered no resistance.✻

Wait, then, brethren, in patience for the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer looks forward to the coveted returns of his land, yet waits patiently for the early and the late rains to fall before they can be brought in.✻

You too must wait patiently, and take courage; the Lord’s coming is close at hand.

Brethren, do not bring complaints against one another; if you do, you will be judged, and the judge is already standing at your doors.

If you would learn by example, brethren, how to work on and wait patiently in evil times, think of the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name.

See how we congratulate those who have shewn endurance. You have heard of Job’s endurance; and you have read, in that story, how kind and merciful the Lord is in rewarding us.✻

But above all, my brethren, do not bind yourselves by any oath, by heaven, by earth, or by any oath at all. Let your word be Yes for Yes, and No for No; if not, you will be judged for it.✻

Is one of you unhappy? Let him fall to prayer. Is one of you cheerful? For him, a psalm.

Is one of you sick? Let him send for the presbyters of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Lord’s name.

Prayer offered in faith will restore the sick man, and the Lord will give him relief; if he is guilty of sins, they will be pardoned.✻

Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, for the healing of your souls. When a just man prays fervently, there is great virtue in his prayer.

Elias was only a mortal man like ourselves, and when he prayed and prayed that it might not rain on the land, there was no rain for three years and six months;✻

then he prayed anew, and rain fell from heaven, and so the land yielded its harvest.

My brethren, if one of you strays from the truth, and a man succeeds in bringing him back,

let him be sure of this; to bring back erring feet into the right path means saving a soul from death, means throwing a veil over a multitude of sins.✻