James 5
1 Now, come on, you who are wealthy, weep—wailing at the hardshipsa coming upon you! 2 Your wealth has rotted, and your clothing has become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silverb have corroded,c and their corrosiond will be for testimony to you, and it will consume your body like fire. You hoarded assets in the final days. 4 Look, the pay of the workers who harvested your fields that you deprived them ofe cries out fromf you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of The-Lord-of-the-Multitudes.g 5 You lived indulgently and luxuriously in the land, feeding your hearts’ desires during a day of slaughter.h 6 You have rendered judgment against and murdered the just person, without the just person resistingi you.
7 Therefore, Family, patiently persevere until the Lord’s arrival.j Look how the farmer anticipates the valued produce from the land, patiently persevering for it until they receive the early and late rains.k 8 You too, patiently persevere and secure your motivationsl because the Lord’s arrival is close. 9 Family, don’t complain against each other so that you won’t be assessed. Look,m the judge stands in front of the gates!n
10 Family, accept the example of suffering and patient perseverance from the prophets who spoke representingo the Lord. 11 Look, we gratifyp those who enduredq it. You heard of Job’s endurance, and you saw the Lord at the end, that the Lord is bigheartedr and compassionate.s
12 Now, my Family, before anything else, don’t swear an oath, neither by the land nor by any other oath. Have your ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no,’ so you don’t fall under assessment.
13 Have anyone suffering hardship among you pray. Have anyone who is happy sing praise. 14 Have anyone chronically ill among you call the elders of the assembly to them, and have them pray for the person, anointing them with olive oil as a representativet of the Lord. 15 The trusting prayer will restoreu the person who is sick, and the Lord will raisev them up, and if deviations have been made, he will dismiss them. 16 Therefore, acknowledge deviations to each other, and pray for each other that you would be healed. The request of a just person is powerful when it’s at work. 17 Elijah was a person like us, and he prayed a prayer for it not to rain, and it didn’t rain in the land for three years and six months! 18 Then he prayed again, and the heavens provided rain, and the land produced its fruit.
19 My Family, if anyone among you is misled away from the truth and someone turns them back around, 20 let them know that whoever turns a deviator back around from their misleading path rescues their very life from death and covers over a huge number of deviations.
FOOTNOTES:
a This is the noun form of the verb that was translated as ‘reverse course’ in James 4:9. In James 4:9, it had to do with an image of an army retreating because of encountering overwhelming hardship in battle. Here, it is referring to the hardship itself.
b Referring to coins, and possibly objects made of gold and silver. The next word ‘have rusted’ is more literally ‘has rusted,’ referring to the gold and silver as a singular. It seems to be using ‘gold and silver’ as ‘money.’
c Or ‘been corrupted’
d Or ‘poison’
e Or ‘robbed them of’ or ‘cheated them of’ or ‘withheld.’ The NRSV attempts to include the full idea with ‘kept back by fraud’ which works well.
f Most translations say ‘against’ here. The idea fits the context, but it’s not an accurate translation of the word here. The word is apo, which means ‘away’ and indicates the source or origination point of something. The implication seems to be that those who hoarded assets and cheated people of fair wages still have the money they owe the workers in their possession.
g This word is not actually Greek. It is a Hebrew word transliterated into Greek letters. The Hebrew word is tzeva’ot. It means ‘of armies.’ Traditionally, it has been translated as ‘of hosts,’ which is another, older way of saying ‘of armies.’ Older translation traditions translated it as ‘almighty,’ which is misleading. In this context, it seems to be accomplishing more than one thing at once. The most immediate is that it seems to be identifying the defrauded laborers as the armies, or multitudes, for whom God is Lord. Additionally, it seems to be continuing the use of military references to siding with the ranks under God’s command and against the ranks siding with the False Accuser in James 4:6-7 (against the enemies of God in 4:4) and retreating from hardship in battle James 4:9, and the hardship itself in James 5:1. The further implication is that wealthy people who keep a living wage from workers in James 5:4 are the same ones (or at least equivalent with) who are called maritally unfaithful to God in James 4:4.
h Seemingly a reference to the imagery of the people of God as sheep belonging to the divine Shepherd.
i Again, this is antitasso, an image of joining the ranks of an army against an opposing force.
j This word, parousia, was often used of military leaders returning from the field of battle to the city where they resided or ruled. It is the counterpart of euangelion, (traditionally, ‘gospel’) which was the message carried ahead by couriers to announce the leader’s victory in battle and imminent return to the city.
k There were two separate rainy seasons in Palestine.
l Or ‘desires.’ Literally, ‘hearts’
m The ‘judge’ is the one who gives assessments or evaluations. Also, there was typically not a specific position of ‘judge’ at the time, with people serving as governors or magistrates, kings or religious leaders dealing out ‘judgments’ and serving as judges over disputes or criminal proceedings.
n I.e. about to enter the city, continuing the image presented by parousia of the leader returning to the city from battle.
o Literally, ‘in the name of’
p Traditionally, ‘consider blessed.’ However, there is nothing in the word to suggest ‘consider’ is part of what is being communicated. The traditional addition of ‘consider’ seems to be an assumption on the part of translators that ‘we’ could never be the responsible party for ‘blessing’ someone; however, that is exactly what it says. The word ‘bless’ here is makarizo, related to ‘blessed’ or ‘gratified’ in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, and not to eulogeo, which has often been translated as ‘bless’ but means more like ‘praise’ or ‘wish well.’
q Literally, ‘stayed present during/under’
r This word is a compound of polus (‘much’ or ‘many’ or ‘large’) and splangchnon, which literally means ‘guts’ or ‘womb’ and represents deeply felt compassion.
s This phrase seems to be a reference to (not a quotation) Exodus 34:6, Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 102:13, Joel 2:13, and Jonah 4:2.
t Literally, ‘in the name of’
u Or ‘preserve’ or ‘heal’ or ‘rescue’ or ‘liberate’
v The same word as ‘Get up’ in John 5:8 and ‘raised’ in John 12:1, John 21:14