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Jam_5:11 assigns a new reason for the exhortation: Behold, we count happy them who endure; the μακαρίζειν of them is founded on the consciousness that God does not leave them unrewarded (Mat_5:12), which is clearly manifested in the life of Job, on which account James, in conclusion, refers to him. By the reading τοὺς ὑπομένοντας the idea is to be taken quite generally; whereas by the better attested reading τοὺς ὑπομείναντας it is to be limited to sufferers of the past time; the latter is more in conformity with the context (Wiesinger). The “restricted reference” to τοὺς προφήτας (Grotius, Baumgarten, Pott, Hottinger, Theile) is not to be justified.
τὴν ὑπομόνην Ἰὼβ ἠκούσατε ] ὑπομόνη is not = perpessio (Storr), but the patience which Job displayed both in his afflictions and in his replies to the contradictions of his friends; Tob_2:12-14 (Vulg.; the text in the Greek ed. Tisch. reads differently) refers to the same example; also in Eze_14:14; Eze_14:20, Job is mentioned as a righteous man along with Noah and Daniel.
ἠκούσατε ] may refer specially to the reading in the synagogue, but may be understood generally.
καὶ τὸ τέλος κυρίου ] is, according to the connection given above, to be referred to and explained of the issue in which the sufferings of Job terminated: finem, quern a Domino habuit; so that κυρίου is the genit. subj. or causae (2Co_11:26); thus most expositors explain it. Others, as Augustin, Bede, Lyra, Estius, Thomas, Pareus, Wetstein, Lange, assume that by τέλος κυρίου the death of Christ is to be understood. Against this is not only the concluding clause, but also the context, which points to the end to which the pious sufferer is brought by the mercy of God, and on account of which he is accounted happy; apart altogether from the improbability that James should connect the example of Christ immediately with that of Job.[234]
With the reading εἴδετε this can only be understood of “indirect seeing, namely, of clear perception by hearing” (de Wette). The better attested reading, however, is ἴδετε , and it can only be regarded as an oversight that Wiesinger translates this ἴδετε by “audiendo cognovistis,” as it is not the indicative, but the imperative. The imperative is here certainly surprising, and was on that account changed into the indicative. Tischendorf has connected ἴδετε with what goes before, and then it is to be explained: Ye have heard of the patience of Job, look also at the end which the Lord gave. The connection with what follows would, however, be more suitable: Ye have heard of the patience of Job and the end which the Lord gave; see (i.e. recognise from this) that the Lord is πολύσπλαγχνος and οἰκτίρμων . Such an imperative, introduced ἀσυνδέτως , is not foreign to the style of James; comp. chap. Jam_1:16; Jam_1:19. With the Receptus, and also with the union of ἴδετε with τὸ τέλος κυρίου , ὅτι is not a particle of proof = for (de Wette, Wiesinger, Lange), since in the preceding words no thought is expressed which would be confirmed by this clause;[235] but an objective particle that; a twofold object is joined to the verb, the second definitely bringing forward the point indicated in the first; arbitrarily Theile translates it and certainly.
The subject to ἔστιν is at all events ὁ κύριος , which, according to the most important authorities, is to be retained as genuine.
πολύσπλαγχνος ] is a complete ἅπ . λεγ . “coined after the Hebrew øÇá äÆñÆã ” (Wiesinger), which the LXX. translate πολυέλεος , see Exo_34:6, etc.; in Eph_4:32, 1Pe_3:8, is the related expression εὔσπλαγχνος .
οἰκτίρμων ] in the N. T. only here and in Luk_6:36 (comp. Col_3:12 : σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμοῦ ), frequently in O. T.; comp. with this passage, particularly Exo_34:6; Psa_103:8; and Sir_2:7 ff.
The reference to the mercy of God was to impress the readers, in their sufferings, with the hope that the reward of their patience would not fail them, and to encourage them to stedfast endurance.
[234] In a most unsatisfactory manner Lange seeks to justify this, by observing that James “did thus connect the example of Abraham with that of Rahab.” It is evidently inappropriate to place together Job as “the great sufferer of the Old Testament,” with Christ as “the great sufferer of the New Testament.”
[235] In a peculiar but highly arbitrary manner, Lange refers ὅτι to what directly precedes, uniting it with τὸ τέλος κυρίου in the sense that it is thereby specified what Christ was able to effect in entering upon His sufferings.