What Does James 4:16 Mean in the King James?
But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The repeated Greek boast-root reveals the target: self-glory in what remains beyond your control can wear the face of rejoicing.
THE MEANING
When you speak as though your plans already own tomorrow, confidence can become self-glory. This verse names that posture evil, even when it feels like satisfaction in your prospects.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that naming a plan confidently makes its success yours to claim before the day arrives.
THE ROOT
καυχᾶσθε
kauchasthe
GROWS FROM
καυχ-
kauch-
to boast, glory, or take pride in
“rejoice / rejoicing” in this verse is kauchasthe. The verb καυχᾶσθε (kauchasthe, “you boast”) and noun καύχησις (kauchesis, “boasting”) belong to the same Greek word family, though the KJV renders them “rejoice” and “rejoicing.” The word ἀλαζονείαις (alazoneiais, “boastful pretensions”) colors that boasting as inflated certainty: the reader celebrates as if a plan already possessed its outcome.
ALSO GROWS
kauchaomai: to boast or glory in
καυχάομαι
This verb names the posture beneath the KJV’s “rejoice” here: taking pride in what one claims.
kauchema: a boast or ground for boasting
καύχημα
It shows that this word family can name both the act of boasting and what someone claims as its basis.
kauchesis: boasting or glorying
καύχησις
This is the noun in the verse’s closing clause, repeating the root of the opening verb.
THE PATTERN
Scripture exposes self-grounded confidence and relocates glory beyond the self.
Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.THE THREAD
But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.The verb καυχάομαι (kauchaomai, “boast” or “glory”) shares its root with James’s καυχᾶσθε (kauchasthe, “you boast”). James exposes self-glory in presumed outcomes; Paul uses the same word family to locate glory in the Lord.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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