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The Judaists exhorted to repentance or to realize a presentiment of the judgment.
Jam_5:1. Well then, ye rich.—Concerning the rich see Introduction, Jam_1:10; Jam_2:6-7. That the reference is not to the outwardly rich but to the rich in the sense of Old Testament (Psalms 73; Isaiah 5), Gospel (Mat_19:24; Rev_3:17) and symbolical usage may be expected from an Apostolical man, to say nothing of an Apostle. The ordinary construction put on this term would lead us to expect either that the Epistle ought to have driven the outwardly rich from the Church or that they would have excluded the Epistle from the Canon. But just as the Jewish Christians themselves have ceased to be known so also the Gentile Christian Church has suffered the majestic prophetical penitential discourse of the faithful Christian Apostle to the Jews to be reduced to the conception of a severe moral lecture. The repetition of ἄãå íῦí does not prove that the reference here is to the same persons who are addressed in 4:18 (as Huther supposes). Nor is the reference at all to individuals as such; the persons addressed there are Judaists in a most perilous condition, while those addressed here are those who according to the last warning harden themselves by the self-delusion of their being theocratically rich. The entire prophetical lamentation must be judged according to its analogies in the Old Testament (Isa_2:22; Isa_3:9; Isa_3:19 etc.) the words of Christ (Matthew 23) and the Apocalypse (Revelation 18).
Weep unto howling.—De Wette and al. take this as an exhortation to shed the tears of repentance; Huther agrees with Calvin who denies that there is any reference to repentance and considers the passage to be “simplex denunciatio judicii dei, qua eos terrere voluit ab spe veniæ.” Wiesinger takes a middle position: that the design of James, as in the case of the prophets of the Old Testament, is nevertheless none other than that of moving them, if possible, to turn from their perverse course. Huther, who objects that James nowhere intimates such design, overlooks 1, that also the strongest menaces of judgment in the Old Testament are at any rate hypothetical (see the Book of Jonah, Jer_28:7 etc.), 2, that the most assured foreseeing of the inevitability of the judgment as a whole still involves the possibility of individuals being wakened and saved in virtue of such menace, 3, that the Divine fore-announcement of such a judgment is at the same time made as a testimony of the truth for the future and designed to serve other generations as a warning and to conduce to their salvation. The strict construction of Huther is still more striking because he disputes Selmer’s exposition of the Imperative, viz. “stilo prophetico imperat, ut rem certiss mam demonstret,” and maintains that the proper force of the Imperative ought to be retained. This would therefore be a command to weep without any hope of salvation. The Participle ὀëïëýæïíôåò ( ὀëïëýæåéí used often to describe howling with reference to the near approach of the judgment, Isa_13:6; Isa_14:31 etc.) denotes weeping accompanied by constant howling, i.e. increasing unto howling.
Over your miseries.—The impending judgments, not specified by the Apostle, but further alluded to only with respect to their premonitory symptoms.
Which are drawing near on you.—There is hardly room to doubt that James refers primarily to the Jewish war and the destruction of Jerusalem; so Thomas Aquinas, Grotius, Michaelis and al. understand it. Huther cannot substantiate by any proof the remark that “they (Thomas Aquinas, etc.) are not wrong in this respect, because in the Apostle’s mind the destruction of Jerusalem and the last judgment had not yet been distinguished.” The ôáëáéðùñßáé are rather said to be ἐðåñ÷üìåíáé , already approaching; whereas a very patient waiting is necessary with respect to the coming of the Lord, Jam_5:7, etc., although in the light of Christian hope (not of chiliastic calculation) it is near at hand. On you, by which Luther and others further define the approaching judgments, follows not from the literal expression but from the connection; ἐðß also contains an allusion, favouring the construction. [See Appar. Crit. Note 1.—M.].
Their condition: spiritual self-delusion, the corruptness and self-consumption of their supposed riches. Jam_5:2-3.
Jam_5:2. Your riches are corrupted.—The verb óÞðù ( ἅðáî ëåã . in N. T.), to make rotten or putrid, destroy by rottenness, signifies in 2 Perf. Pass. (as here) to rot, moulder, to be rotten or also to be in a state of rotting fermentation. But it has also the more general sense, to corrupt, to consume oneself (Sir_14:19). [ óÝóçðá is Perf. Middle.—M.]. The verb therefore does not necessitate us to understand with Gebser and al. ðëïῦôïò =frumenta. The main question here is to determine whether this and the next expression denote the natural immanent judgment of sin as portents of the positive judgments, or the latter (Grotius, Bengel), so that future events are prophetically described as having already taken place (de Wette, Wiesinger, Huther and al.). But the reference is evidently to the former; the corrupting of riches and the moth-eaten garments denote immanent, natural corruptions. But here, as in the prophets (Isa_28:1-2; Isa_33:11-12; Jeremiah 7 etc.) and in our Lord’s eschatological discourse (Mat_24:28) these natural corruptions, as the judgment of the self-dissolution (—consumption) of sin, are in their products the tokens of positive judgment. But the riches must be taken figuratively, not literally as is generally done. The prophetical idea of the rich corresponds to the prophetical idea of the riches. It denotes therefore externalized Judaistic righteousness with all its national prerogatives, of course connected with that outward worldly prosperity and ease which are the outward complements of such self-righteousness. It is matter of historical record that at the time when James wrote this Epistle, Jewish affairs had the appearance of spiritual prosperity (in point of orthodoxy and world-holiness), as well as of worldly flourishing in the reign (in part at least) of Herod Agrippa II. (See my Apost. Age. I. pp. 307, 312, 324).
And your garments.—Doubtless in the sense of the splendid garment Jam_2:2.
Are become moth-eaten, óçôüâñùôïò , Job_13:28 : not found in Classic Greek and not elsewhere in the New Testament.
Jam_5:3. Your gold and your silver are eaten up with rust.— êáôéüù is ἅðáî ëåã . in the New Testament. Gold and silver do not contract rust, hence Hornejus observes that it is populariter dictum, which is approved by Huther. Pott interprets the striking expression of the dimness of their burnish, others otherwise. According to Huther James did not anxiously calculate the difference of metals in his vivid concrete depiction; but this would be an intensely popular mode of expression. The words Isa_1:22, “Thy silver is become dross” are not a merely popular expression; on the contrary they are designed to bring out the unnatural fact that the princes of Israel are become rebellious and companions of thieves. It is then an unnatural phenomenon to which James adverts, of course in figurative language. It is as unnatural for gold and silver to be eaten up with rust as for the glory of Israel to be as corrupted as the glory of other nations corrupts, which may be compared to base metals.
And their rust shall be a testimony against you.—Wiesinger, with whom Huther agrees, proposes the following interpretation: in the consuming of their treasures, to be brought about by an outward judgment, they see depicted their own. But the loss of outward wealth under the influence of outward corruption is by mo means evidence of the inward corruption of the losers. Oecumenius supposes that the rust on their gold and silver shall testify against the hardness of their heart, because they did not use them in doing good. This is correct as far as the reference is doubtless to a corruption inherent in their circumstances, but it lacks the due appreciation of the figurative sense: the rusting of your gold and silver, of your glory, represented by your leading men (see Isa_1:22-23), shall be a token that the nation is corrupted in its rich men in general. And this was actually the case. The leading men who in the spiritual life ought to have shone like tarnished silver and gold were rusted in legalism and dragged the majority of the self-righteous people into their own corruption.
And shall consume your flesh.—The Plural óÜñêåò is differently explained. The word stands simply for ὑìᾶò (Baumgarten), it denotes their well-fed bodies (Augusti), the fleshy parts of the body as contrasted with the bones (Huther who refers to 2Ki_9:36; and particularly to Mic_3:2-3). But these passages contain no allusion to a consuming fire; fire consumes bones as well as flesh. We therefore assume that the term flesh is here used in a bad sense as in Gen_6:3; Jer_17:5 and Joh_3:6, and that the Plural describes the life of the rich as exhibited in the carnalities or externals of religious, civil or individual life, in which they take delight. That consuming rust of the decayed, defunct and deadly legalism beginning at the gold and silver with which they decorate themselves, eats through the flesh of their customs, ceremonies and earthly possessions to the very destruction of their life. It is a rust which has the consuming energy of fire (Ps. 21:22; Isa_10:16-17). The rotten fixity, described as rust, in its last stage transforms itself into the fire of a revolutionary movement, into a fanatical, consuming conflagration of rebellion (see Rev_19:20), or in brief: absolutism becomes revolution. It is the consummated national self-dissolution, as it fully developed itself in the Jewish war and in Jerusalem besieged. The reference therefore on the one hand, is neither to consuming grief and want (Erasmus and al.), nor, on the other, already to the real, positive judgments (Calvin, Grotius, Wiesinger, Huther and al.). With respect to ὡò ðῦñ , Wiesinger, who adopts the punctuation of Cod. A and Oecumenius, and follows Grotius and Knapp, connects it with ἐèçóáõñßóáôå : “tanquam ignem opes istas congessistis, et quidem ipsis extremis temporibus.” Wiesinger cites as an analogy èçóáõñßæåéò óåáõôῷ ὀñãÞí , Rom_2:5, to which Huther rightly objects that in the words ἐèçóáõñßóáôå ἐí ἐó÷Üôáéò ἡìÝñáéò the principal stress rests on ἐó÷Üôáéò ἡìÝñáéò . This is sufficient; his further remark that the fire denotes already positive judgment we consider, for the reason already given, to be incorrect, but this fire points to positive judgment. ὡò also is against Wiesinger’s construction, and so does the over bold metaphor: ye have as it were gathered fire in gathering your wealth.
Ye have heaped up treasure.—The verb requires no definite specification of the object and the supply of ὀñãÞí (according to Rom_2:5. Calvin and al.) is superfluous and arbitrary. Moreover, the treasure, as Huther remarks, has been specified before.
In the last days.—Not perchance the last days, and the last days are neither the last days of life, nor the last days before the advent of Christ (Huther). James refers to the last days before the final national judgment, alluded to in Jam_5:1, but not yet described. The gathering of treasure is done in the anticipation of a long happy future; this reprehensible heaping up treasure in the last days of their existence, immediately before the judgment involving not only the ruin of their treasure but also of their very existence, characterizes moreover their fearful want of apprehension (freedom from all misgiving and fear, assurance) and mad-like self-delusion. All their spiritual and worldly treasures are useless obstacles in the impending judgment, destined to vanish as the means of their self-delusion in order to make room for a fearful undeceiving. Thus the indication of positive judgment draws nearer, but the Apostle first refers to their decisive sins.
Their positive sins resulting from such spiritual self-delusion. Their sins against the reapers of the harvest in Israel. The unsuspecting assurance of their life of indulgence in the very day of their judgment. The crime of the murder of the Just One. Jam_5:4-6.
Jam_5:4. Behold the hire of the labourers.—First decisive sin. Huther: “Injustice towards those who work for them;” Wiesinger: One case instead of many, a case moreover which clearly exposes the crying injustice of those rich men as the transgression of the express prohibition, Deu_24:14-15; Lev_19:13; Mal_3:5.—And this is to be the whole meaning of this passage! But in the first place it is inconceivable that those wandering trafficking Jews of the dispersion (Jam_4:13) should all of a sudden be transformed into large landed proprietors, and in the second equally inconceivable that James should have occasion to reproach all the rich landlords of the dispersion with literally holding back the hire of their labourers. Here also we must again insist upon the symbolical sense of the passage. The first question is to determine the sense in which the term “the harvest of Israel” is used by the prophets (Isa_9:3; Joe_3:18), by John the Baptist (Mat_3:12), and by our Lord (Matt 4:85; Mat_9:38; cf. Rev_14:15-16).—It denotes the time when the theocratic seed of God in Israel has become ripe unto harvest; on the one hand unto the harvest of judgment, on the other unto the harvest of salvation. The latter idea predominates here. The harvest of Israel was the ripened spirit-produce of the Old Testament, as manifested in the work of Christ; in the reapers we may aptly see the Apostles (according to Joh_4:35), and the first Christians in general. From them the rich in Israel kept back the hire in that they rejected their testimony in unbelief. And thus the voices of those reapers cried into the ears of the Lord of hosts, i.e., abandoning the figure: their sin against them cried out to God, even to God, the Lord of those hosts which were already on the point of approaching in order to execute the judgment of God on Israel.—The labourers, ἐñãÜôáé , see 1Ti_5:18. ἀìᾷí is ἅðáî ëåã . in N. T. The expression imports moreover that Israel’s whole harvest of blessing has been brought home by these labourers into the Christian Church and that there is no other harvest besides it.
Which hath been kept back.—We construe with Huther “the hire which hath been kept back, crieth out from you,” ἀö ’ ὑìῶí , as we read in Gen_4:10. “the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground,” because thus the injustice crying out for vengeance is laid to the charge of the evil-doers not to that of the labourers; the common construction “which hath been kept back by you” seems to be less opposed by taking ἀðü in the sense of ὑðü , than by the consideration that êñÜæåé denotes a crying out for vengeance. Hence the connection is not: “the hire of the mowers crieth out and this crying has come to the ears of God” (Theile), but the crying out of the hire that has been kept back (Gen_18:20; Gen_19:13) on the one hand, is completed on the other by the âïáß of the reapers or the gatherers of the harvest, first as cries of complaint and cries for help (see Heb_5:7; Act_4:24 etc.; Act_12:5), and lastly also as cries for righteous recompense (Rev_6:10-11). And these, even more than the former crying have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts; which would yield this sense: not only the unbelief of the unbelieving Jews but also the distress of the believing Christians induce the Lord of hosts to send forth His hosts unto judgment; as indeed the destruction of Jerusalem was not only a visitation of judgment on Judaism but also a visitation of salvation on the Christian Church. The crying out of Christian blood for mercy to enemies reaches also its limit in the induration of unbelievers; moreover we should distinguish the reapers themselves from their âïáß , here made objective. The term “Lord of hosts” hardly renders prominent the power of God, as that of Lord of the heavenly hosts only (Wiesinger, Huther); He is also Lord of the earthly hosts according to the prophets (Isa_4:3; Isa_18:7; Isa_24:21; Amo_9:4-5), and also. According to Christ (Mat_22:7). [Bede suggests the following reason “Dominum exercituum appellat, ad terrorem eorum, qui pauperes putant nullum habere tutorem.” This is the only passage in the New Testament where the term “Lord of hosts” is used in direct discourse. Rom_9:29 is a quotation.—M.].
Second sin. Jam_5:5. Ye have lived high on earth.— ôñõöᾷí is ἅðáî ëåã . in the N. T. It comprehends the ideas: to live softly, voluptuously, gloriously and also extravagantly. In LXX. (Neh_9:25 and Isa_66:11) the fundamental idea is “to take delight in something to revel.” óðáôáëᾷí denotes living lewdly, luxuriously, especially in eating and drinking; but in Lxx. (Eze_16:49 and Amo_6:4) the idea of idle indulgence is decidedly predominant, probably also in 1Ti_5:6. Hence the two words would express not the definite antithesis deliciæ et exquisita voluptas and luxuria atque prodigalitas (Hottinger), but that of positive sumptuousness in pleasure and sensuality and of negative sumptuousness in effeminate, careless indolence. We might therefore translate “Ye have had your delight and have settled down on earth,” or “ye have become worldly and effeminate,” or “ye have bragged and made a show.” The opposite order occurs in Luk_16:19 : the daily wearing of holiday-apparel denotes the idler, the sumptuous living, revelry. Huther strikingly points out the contrast of this sumptuous mode of life and the toilsome life of the labourers, also the contrast of such revelling on earth and the complaint which is made to the Lord in heaven. But we must not overlook in this revelling on earth the thought, that the earth, the earthly, figuratively taken, was the foundation in which their revelling struck root, and that the day of slaughter is the principal antithesis of revelling.
And fattened your hearts.— ôñÝöåéí in the opinion of several commentators denotes fattening, for the evident design of this clause is to show that the rich regarded and nourished their heart as an animal existence. Hence Huther is wrong in his correction of Luther, “to pasture your hearts,” better: “to satiate.” Luther’s rendering is excellent and we should have retained it but for the necessity of holding fast to the other meaning that fattening the heart is at the same time indurating the heart ( êáñäßá ðåðùñùìÝíç ). The heart, however, is not a paraphrastic description of the body or individuality but denotes inward life, the kernel of spiritual. life (Act_14:17). Wiesinger asserts that êáñäßá involves per se the idea of passionate fondness of enjoyment, but Luk_21:34 is the last passage which makes good his assertion.
In the day of slaughter.—On the omission of ùò see Appar. Crit. Nor must ἐí be changed into åἰò . The rendering “as on a day of slaughter” (Luther, Wolf, Augusti) is consequently a double weakening of the thought. The comment of Calvin, Grotius, Bengel etc., that the day of slaughter is the day of sacrifice, when the slaughter of the victims is followed by banqueting, is altogether outside of the connection with the judgment. Calvin: “Quia solebant in saerificiis solemnibus liberalius vesci, quam pro quotidiano more. Dicit ergo divites tota vita continuare festum.” Huther rightly observes that the term in question is never used in this sense. De Wette sees in it a comparison to beasts, which on the very day of slaughter eat in unconcern. Huther thinks this comparison inappropriate, since beasts do not eat more greedily on the day of slaughter than at any other time. But this refutation rests on a misunderstanding. Beasts always eat greedily; their eating on the day of slaughter may therefore be used as a figure of the inordinate feasting of the obdurate on the very day of judgment. The analogy of 2Pe_2:12 only tends to strengthen the appropriateness of this construction. The thought is further intensified by the consideration that while beasts are led to pasture and fattened for the day of slaughter, these men laid themselves voluntarily out for feasting in the very day of slaughter. But we may suppose that this point of comparison must not be dissociated from the general and more lofty meaning of ἡìÝñá óöáãῆò , viz. that of a day of judgment (Jer_12:3; Jer_25:34). In the last passage also the ideas “day of judgment” and “day of slaughter” are taken together in a literal sense, so also in Isa_53:7; Rev_19:17-18. But the day on which began Israel’s day of judgment which is developing itself into a day of slaughter, was the day of Christ’s crucifixion which connected with the day of the destruction of Jerusalem becomes in a symbolical sense one day of visitation. The Aorists here, therefore, are not used to indicate that the conduct of the rich is to be viewed from the future day of judgment at the second coming of Christ (Huther), but because their carnal arrogance and unconcern in the devilish revelling of their hearts culminated just on the judgment-day of Israel. Since then their day of slaughter is in process of development. Just as they had therefore collected together the treasures of legal righteousness in the last days, while the old time was on the wane, so they had reached the climax of their self-indulgent worldliness on the last day, the day of judgment.—This leads to their third and greatest sin.
Jam_5:6. Ye have condemned, ye have killed the Just.—The fact of modern commentators disputing the exposition of Oecumenius, Bede and Grotius that the Just signifies Christ, proves how far they have wandered from the text in the treatment of this Epistle. Only think of James, the witness of Christ, at the end of his course calling out to the obdurate of all the people of Israel: Ye have condemned and killed the Just and they not to have understood him to refer to the rejection and crucifixion of Christ! But to what or to whom else did they think he was alluding? Gebser and Huther [also Alford—M.] take äßêáéïí collectively for ôïὺò äéêáßïõò ; i.e. oppressed, suffering Christians, and Huther says: “The ground of the persecution is implied in the word äßêáéïí itself; the Singular should be taken collectively, the idea absolutely” (similarly Theile). But then surely Christ ought to be considered as standing at the head of these slain ones. Wiesinger (and de Wette) refers the term to continued persecution ad mortem usque and adds that all reference to Christ is so manifestly against the whole context of the passage, that refutation is altogether unnecessary. On the contrary, proof is almost unnecessary. Wiesinger objects first, that the Epistle is addressed to the dispersion. But at the Passover, when Christ was crucified, the dispersion also was represented at Jerusalem, and symbolically all Israel was already dispersed. The most important objection is the Present ïὐê ἀíôéôÜóóåôáé ὑìῖí . This Present is certainly difficult. But is it more convenient to affirm concerning the collectively just man, that he had been killed by those rich and that he was still living than to affirm as much concerning Christ? The Vulgate probably alludes to Christ in rendering “non restitit;” so Luther, “he hath not resisted you.” But the Present forbids such a rendering. But also the common explanation: “Ye have killed the Just, he does not resist you” gives a thought which is not clear, at least not very distinct. It would perhaps be easier to suppose that the readers of the Epistle understood James to say: “Christ does not resist you in His members, He still endures willingly all persecutions in His sufferings.” But would this thought be a fitting conclusion of the great denunciation of those obdurate people? Nor is it the idea “the just do not resist you.” We understand therefore Bentley’s conjecture of reading ὁ êýñéïò instead of ïὐê (see Jam_4:6; 1Pe_5:5; Pro_3:34); still more the explanation of Benson to take the clause interrogatively. Giving to ἀíôéôÜóóåóèáé the fullest Middle sense, the question would read thus: “Does He not bring up against you His army (as the executor of the punitive justice of the Lord of hosts)?” or “does He not rise against you in combat?” At least it is easy to understand that with a predominantly ascetic turn of mind such a question might have been asked. But considering the importance of the matter, the interrogative form ought to be more distinctly marked: does he not already march against you, march against you in the tempest of war? Besides such an explanation might easily obscure the thought of the continuous suffering which Christ endures in His people. Hence one might light on the idea of rebellion, as we have it in Rom_13:2. He does not rebel against you, i, e. you are the rebels. But this again is not sufficiently clear. We read therefore: He stands no longer in your way, He does not stop you (in the way of death); He suffers you to fill up your measure. See Mat_23:32-38. And this dark, pregnant sentence is the concentration of the announcement that the judgment impending on them, is inevitable. [The clause “ ïὐê ἀíôéôÜóóåôáé ὑìῖí ” seems to be ironical: He lets you alone (Hos_4:17).—James was called by his contemporaries “the Just” and this reference to Jesus as “the Just One” is a touching illustration of his character, for a delineation of which the reader is referred to the Introduction.—M.].
2. Earthly wealth is not an absolute but a relative obstacle to entering the kingdom of God; cf. Mar_10:23-25.—The history of many rich men, e.g. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea shows that this obstacle may be overcome. But this is impossible where covetousness reigns supreme and adopts every means of preserving or increasing earthly possessions. Here applies the Apostolic warning, 1Ti_6:17-19,—compare also Plutarch, de cupiditate divitiarum, and the saying of Seneca, de benef. II. c. 27, “concitatior est avaritia in magnarum opum congestus,” also Sallust, in Catil. c. x. 4.—A life of luxurious indulgence as the concomitant of wealth and dependence on that wealth coupled with unfeeling contempt of one’s brother, according to the teaching of Christ Himself, deserves the judgment Luk_16:25. And the history of the destruction of Jerusalem as well as innumerable incidents taken from the history of the kingdom of God confirm the fact that such rich men are not rarely visited already here below with earthly calamity and outward distress apart from that judgment for eternity.
3. The rejection of the Messiah, to which James clearly alludes (Jam_5:6), as the work of the prominent Jews, as the murder of the Innocent and the Just was not only a heinous crime per se (cf. Act_3:13-15), but also the first of a series of crimes enacted on the members of the Body, after they had first laid hands on the Head, which terminated at last in the horrors of the Jewish civil war and were punished with the fall of the and the destruction of the temple.
4. Christianity imposes upon all men, blessed with earthly goods, the duty to ascertain and, if practicable, to satisfy the wants of their subordinates and servants and to consider themselves not as the lords but as the stewards of the capital confided to them, Luk_16:2; cf. Col_4:1.—Those who neglect this duty and oppress the poor have even pursuant to the tenor of the Old Testament to bear the dreadful punishment of God. See e.g. Psalms 37.; Pro_14:31; Ecc_5:-7.
5. “Indulgence as it were fattens men for the punishment of hell—a figure taken from the sacrificial victims—i.e. ripens them so much the more for torments.” Heubner on Jam_5:5.
Starke: Cramer:—If you get riches, set not your heart on them, Psa_62:11.—A man may be very rich and yet be very wicked, Psa_73:12.
Augustine:—Magna pietas! thesaurizat pater filiis; immo magna vanitas! thesaurizat moriturus morituris.—Many who do not leave even children and know not whose shall be their riches (Luk_12:20) are so possessed of avarice, that they loathe parting even with a penny. O, unhappy rich!
Quesnel:—Thus the rich ground their hope on things which decay and perish. Foolish building! Mat_7:26-27.
Langii op.:—If there were many pious rich men, who did husband their wealth as the stewards of God, the need of the poor would be greatly lessened, Luk_8:2-3; Luk_22:35.
Hedinger:—There are many who gather along with their gold a treasure of the wrath and vengeance of God, Rom_2:5.—To defraud labourers of their hire they have earned is a sin that crieth out to heaven and is sure to be followed by the curse and most fearful vengeance of God, 1Th_4:6.—The name of God “the Lord of hosts” is as terrible to the ungodly as it is consoling to the godly, Ps. 46:11, 12.—Robbing the poor of their well-earned wages is murder, Exo_1:13-14.
Stier: (Jam_5:6):—James refers primarily to the Lord, the Just One (Act_7:52) and he himself bore the honourable epithet “the Just,” he here (implicite) humbly declines that epithet. Yet again—(here the inspiration of the Spirit affects the author of the Epistle so perceptibly and becomes here so remarkably prophetical that again)—he is unconsciously prophesying of himself. An author, who lived soon after the Apostles (Hegesippus), gives us a full account, which is doubtless correct in its main features, of the martyrdom of James the Just, the Lord’s brother, shortly before the siege of Jerusalem. See Introd. p. 9 etc.; [also Excursus p. 18, etc.—M.].—(Jam_5:4). Surely the words of James apply to many of our contemporaries, and many a proud palace ought to have the appropriate inscription.—“Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong.”—The treatment which poor labourers experience at the hands of our money-aristocrats and merchant princes, who in their avarice are just what those names import and nothing more, who refuse to know the Lord God and our Saviour, cries everywhere loud enough in our ears, and is it likely that this crying has not also entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts? Of Him, who commanded even Moses to say in the law: “Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant, that is poor and needy—lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.” Deu_24:14-15.—
Jakobi:—It is not the measure of wealth, but the measure of sin, which tells; everything depends upon the manner how earthly riches, be they great or small, have been acquired and are enjoyed; and hence those whom we can by no means call wealthy, may be just as ungodly and unrighteous, just as indulgent and voluptuous as those who are really rich. Our text is therefore addressed to all that are earthly-minded, to all worldly people that do not order their lives according to the rule “to have, as though they had, and to buy, as though they possessed not.” 1Co_7:29 etc.
Neander:—James describes wealth in three different respects, viz. in garnered fruits of the field, in apparel, in gold and silver. All these, he says, the rich heap up without profit. Their treasures in gold and silver, for want of use, are eaten up with rust and will testify against them in judgment, finding them guilty because they suffered to perish for want of use that which they ought to have employed for the benefit of others. The rust consumes their own flesh, reminding them of their own perishableness and of the punishment that awaits them in the judgment, because instead of gathering durable riches, they have heaped up the fire of Divine punishment in treasures destined to be eaten up with rust.
Viedebandt:—A Christian, as has been strikingly said, may own worldly possessions like Abraham, David and many more, for a beggar’s staff will no more take us to heaven than a golden chain or velvet fur will take us to hell. Christ says not; “Ye cannot have God and mammon,” but “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Riches, says Augustine, are gifts of God and therefore good in themselves, Lest men decry them as evil, they are also accorded to the good, lest they be valued as the best goods, they are also given to the evil; Holy Scripture therefore only forbids men to be proud of and to ground their hopes on uncertain riches. But although riches and righteousness are compatible with one other, yet those who are distinguished by their worldly possessions, should cherish in their souls a sacred fear of them.—Riches are snares [German rhyme “Schätze sind Netze.”—M.].—A man lights hell-fire with his own hands if he suffers the fire of lusts to burn in his heart.—Dr. Sauvergne, a physician, narrates the case of a miser, who had his money brought to his dying bed and expired with the words “more gold, more gold!”
Lisco:—The dangers of wealth.—Of twofold riches (earthly and heavenly).—
Porubszky:—The woe uttered over the rich. 1, what it means; 2, its application to our time, 3, when it will cease.
[Wordsworth: Jam_5:2.—Although they may still glitter brightly in your eyes, and may dazzle men by their brilliance when ye walk the streets, or sit in the high places of this world; yet they are in fact already cankered. They are loathsome in God’s sight. The Divine anger has breathed on them and blighted them: they are already withered and blasted, as being doomed to speedy destruction; for ye lived delicately on the earth (Jam_5:5), and have not laid up treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt (Mat_6:20).
Even while shining in your coffers, they are, in God’s eye, sullied and corroded, and they will not profit you in the day of trial, but be consumed by His indignation: and the rust they have contrasted by lying idle as êôÞìáôá , and not being used as ÷ñÞìáôá , will be a witness against yon at the Great Day; and will pass from them by a plague-like contagion and devour your flesh as fire.
Jam_5:5.—A striking contrast. Ye feasted jovially in a day of sacrifice, when abundance of flesh of the sacrificed animals is on the table at the sacrificial banquet. Ye ought to have ruled the people gently and mildly; but ye “have fed yourselves and not the flock,” ye nourished your own hearts and not those of your people; ye have sacrificed and devoured them like sheep or calves of the stall fatted for the pampering of your own appetites. Cf. Eze_34:1-10. Cyril in Caten. p. 33.
Ye did this at the very time when ye yourselves were like victims appointed to be sacrificed in the day of the Lord’s vengeance, which is often compared by Hebrew prophets to a sacrifice, see below, Rev_19:17. Cf. Oecumenius and Theophylact here.
This was signally verified by the event. The Jews from all parts of the world came together to the sacrifice of the Passover A. D. 70, and they themselves were then slain as victims to God’s offended justice, especially in the Temple; particularly was this true of the rich, as recorded by Josephus, B. J. vi. passim.—Their wealth excited the cupidity and provoked the fury of the factious zealots against them, and they fell victims in a day of slaughter to their own love of mammon; what was left of their substance was consumed by the flames, which burnt the city.—Joseph. B. J. vii. 29, 32, 37.—M.].
Footnotes:
Jam_5:1. Cod. sin. insert ὑìῖí after ἐðåñ÷ïìÝíáéò [so vulg.syr.copt.Æth.Arm.—M.]
Jam_5:1. Lange: Well then, ye rich, weep unto howling over calamities which are drawing near on you.
Jam_5:1. [Go to now, ye rich, weep howling over your miseries which are coming upon you.]
Jam_5:2. Lange: Your riches are [already] corrupting, and your garments are become motheaten. [ … corrupted … M.]
Jam_5:3. [2 Cod. Sin. A. inserts ὁ ἰὸò after óÜñêáò ὑìῶí .—M.]
Jam_5:3. Lange: Your gold and the silver is rusted and their rust will be a testimony against you and shall consume your flesh [ óÜñêáò , your carnalities] as fire. Ye have heaped up treasure in the last [these last] days.
Jam_5:3. [Your gold and your silver are eaten up with rust and their rust shall be for a testimony to you .… Ye heaped up treasure in the last days.—M.]
Jam_5:4. [3 Cod. Sin. B. read ἀöõóôåñçìÝíïò for ἀðåóôåñçìÝíïò —M.]
Jam_5:4. Lange: … which hath been kept back, crieth out from you, and the cries of the reapers have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts, [ … have entered into the ears of the lord of hosts.—M.]
Jam_5:5. Cod. Sin. A. B. omit ὡò before ἐí ; so Vulg. and other versions; found in Rec., G K. and is probably an exegetical addition.
Jam_5:5. [ Aeth. Pell Piatt’s edition. “ut qui saginat bovem in diem mactationis.—M.]
Jam_5:5. Lange: Ye have lived high on earth, ye have lived wantonly and fattened [like flesh] your hearts [as] in the day of slaughter.
Jam_5:5. [Ye lived in luxury on the earth and wantoned (Alford); ye fattened your hearts in. … M.]
Jam_5:6. Lange: Ye have condemned, ye have killed the Just. He doth not resist you [any longer opposing and saving].
Jam_5:6. [Ye condemned, ye killed the Just One. He doth not resist you.]
In German “Fressen” and “Saufen” are properly used to denote the eating and drinking of beasts, i. e. inordinate, greedy eating and drinking. Applied to human beings the terms are offensive and insulting, although the vulgar are apt to indulge in these choice terms with reference to themselves.—M.