Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Because ye ask amiss (dioti kakwv aiteisqe). Here the indirect middle does make sense, "ye ask for yourselves" and that is "evilly" or amiss (kakwv), as James explains.
That ye may spend it in your pleasures (ina en taiv hdonaiv umwn dapanhshte). Purpose clause with ina and the first aorist subjunctive of dapanaw, old verb from dapanh, cost (Luke 14:28 only in N.T.), to squander (Luke 15:14). God does not hear prayers like this.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing James 4:3:
Luke 15:14
Titus 3:3
James 4:2
2 Peter 2:13
1 John 5:14
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