James 5

¹Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries coming upon you. ²Your wealth has rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten. ³Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. ⁴Look! The wages you withheld from the laborers who reaped your fields cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. ⁵You have lived in luxury on the earth and indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned and murdered the righteous person; he does not resist you.

⁷So be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Look! The farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receives the early and late rains. ⁸You too must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the coming of the Lord has drawn near. ⁹Do not groan against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Look! The judge stands at the doors. ¹⁰Brothers, take as an example of suffering and patience the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹Look! We call those who endured blessed. You have heard of Job's endurance, and you have seen the outcome the Lord brought about, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful.

¹²But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. Let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under judgment.

¹³Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. ¹⁴Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. A righteous person's prayer has great strength in its working. ¹⁷Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. ¹⁸And he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the earth brought forth its fruit.

¹⁹My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, ²⁰let him know that whoever turns a sinner back from his wandering way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

Translation notes 9

5:3 — Corrosion and fire. James's image makes decaying wealth testify against its owners. “Like fire” can instead attach to the following clause: “You have stored up treasure like fire in the last days.” This is a punctuation question, not a different Greek word sequence.

5:4–5 — Hosts and slaughter. “Lord of hosts” translates the Hebrew title preserved in Greek as “Lord Sabaoth,” referring to the Lord's armies. “Fattened your hearts” keeps the feeding image as luxury moves toward slaughter; the base says “in a day of slaughter,” without the added “as” found in another reading.

5:6 — The righteous person. The singular can portray the righteous poor person as a representative victim; the text does not name Jesus here. The last clause can alternatively be read as a question, “Does he not resist you?” Its subject is unstated in Greek. Some take the question to refer to God's opposition, echoing 4:6.

5:7, 9–10, 12, 19 — Brothers. This masculine family address can include a mixed community. It marks the turn from the accusation against the rich to the call for patience.

5:7–11 — Rain, coming, and outcome. “Rains” is supplied after “early and late,” which the shorter Greek leaves implicit. The nearness of the Lord's coming is retained without inserting a timetable. “The outcome the Lord brought about” interprets “the end of the Lord” through Job's story; “the Lord's purpose” is another rendering.

5:12 — Swearing. The command concerns oaths, not merely coarse language. The translation does not add exceptions that James does not state.

5:14–15 — Prayer and the sick. “Elders” names the assembly's recognized leaders. “Save” here includes restoration to health, with forgiveness also explicitly in view. “Raise him up” naturally concerns recovery in this setting. James states the promise strongly; the text does not add qualifications or make the sick person's deficient faith the explanation of continued illness. The clause about sins is conditional, not a statement that every sickness results from a particular sin.

5:16–17 — Prayer's working. “In its working” can alternatively be understood as “when put into effect”; the Greek does not name an agent who makes prayer effective. “Earnestly” expresses the emphatic phrase “he prayed with prayer.” The three years and six months are preserved as stated, without harmonizing the wording to the account in Kings.

5:19–20 — Saving a soul. “His soul” most naturally refers to the sinner who is brought back; some understand the rescuer's own soul. “Soul” can mean the person or life. “Cover a multitude of sins” retains the image of forgiveness without specifying whose sins beyond what the sentence says.