James 1:27

1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before ¹  God the Father ²  is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

James 3:6

3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ³  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ⁴  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ⁵ 

James 5:3

5:3 Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! ⁶ 

¹ tn Or “in the sight of”; Grk “with.”

² tn Grk “the God and Father.”

³ tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”

⁴ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

⁵ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).

⁵ tn Or “hoarded up treasure for the last days”; Grk “in the last days.”