As it is, you boast in your arrogance: James now identifies arrogance as the cause of the failure to take God into account in making plans. As it is, literally “But now,” signals that what the business people are doing now is contrary to what they ought to be doing. Rather than believing that their plans will be realized only if God permits, they plan their own things as though there is no God. The sense may be rendered “As the case stands at the moment,” “In point of fact” (Barclay), or “But instead” (Revised English Bible). The verb boast can mean “rejoice” (so rendered here by King James Version). In the New Testament it can mean to take pride in something that is considered good (as in 1.9), but more often it refers to the negative attitude of self pride and confidence in defiance of God. See the discussion in 1.9 and of the related word in 2.13. The noun arrogance is used elsewhere only in 1 John 2.16, where it is used of “pride in life” (rendered as “pride in riches” by New Revised Standard Version and “all the arrogance based on wealth” by Revised English Bible). Here it refers to the kind of presumptuous attitude and empty boasting mentioned in verse 13, and may be rendered as “proud pretensions” (Moffatt) or “bragging.”

There are two possible ways to understand the phrase boast in your arrogance. The first is to take the word arrogance as modifying the verb boast. This appears to be the understanding intended by the Revised Standard Version rendering boast in your arrogance. In this case the noun arrogance is understood as the manner of boasting. The Good News Translation rendering “you are proud, and you boast” makes “you boast” a second parallel element modifying the first element “you are proud” (compare also “boast and brag” New International Version, Revised English Bible). This is also reflected in translations that take “in your arrogance” adverbially, thus “boast arrogantly” (similarly Japanese colloquial version, Japanese New Interconfessional Translation). An alternative translation model for the first sentence is:
• But instead you are so proud [or, arrogant] that you brag about yourself.

The second possibility is to take the noun arrogance as the object or content of the verb boast. Two things may be said in support of this understanding. First, in the New Testament, when the preposition “in” follows the verb “boast,” it always points to the object (Rom 2.17; 2.23). Secondly, in Greek the noun arrogance is in the plural, giving a sense of “incidents of arrogance” or “matters of arrogance.” This understanding is reflected in translations such as “you take a pride in your self-confident assertions” (Barclay), “… boasting in your proud pretensions” (Moffatt). This may be rendered simply as “you take pride in your arrogance” or “you boast about your pretensions,” or even “you brag about yourself.”

James’ conclusion is that All such boasting is evil. Every boasting of this kind is wrong. It is evil because it leaves God out of our planning, as though he does not count. It sets human beings above and against God and robs him of the sovereignty that belongs to him alone. Another way to express this clause is “It is wrong to brag like this” or “It is wrong to be so proud of yourself.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• But instead you are so proud [or, arrogant] that you brag about yourself. It is wrong to brag like this.

Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .