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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - James 5:1 - 5:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Come now, ye rich (age nun hoi plousioi). Exclamatory interjection as in Jam 4:13. Direct address to the rich as a class as in 1Ti 6:17. Apparently here James has in mind the rich as a class, whether believer, as in Jam 1:10., or unbeliever, as in Jam 2:1., Jam 2:6. The plea here is not directly for reform, but a warning of certain judgment (Jam 5:1-6) and for Christians “a certain grim comfort in the hardships of poverty” (Ropes) in Jam 5:7-11.
Weep and howl (klausate ololuzontes). “Burst into weeping (ingressive aorist active imperative of klaiō as in Jam 4:9), howling with grief” (present active participle of the old onomatopoetic verb ololuzō, here only in N.T., like Latin ululare, with which compare alalazō in Mat 5:38.
For your miseries (epi tais talaipōriais humōn). Old word from talaipōros (Rom 7:24) and like talaipōreō in Jam 4:9 (from tlaō to endure and pōros a callus).
That are coming upon you (tais eperchomenais). Present middle participle of the old compound eperchomai to come upon, used here in futuristic prophetic sense.