James 5
1599 Geneva Bible
5 1 He threateneth the rich with God’s severe judgment, for their pride, 7 that the poor hearing the miserable end of the rich, 8 may patiently bear afflictions, 11 as Job did, 14 even in their distresses.
1 Go [a]to now, ye rich men: weep, and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupt, and your garments are moth eaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh, as it were fire. Ye have heaped up treasure for the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the laborers, which have reaped your fields (which is of you kept back by fraud) crieth, and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the [b]ears of the Lord of hosts.
5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and in wantonness. Ye have [c]nourished your hearts, as in a [d]day of slaughter.
6 Ye have condemned, and have killed the just, and he hath not resisted you.
7 [e]Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. [f]Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the former, and the latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient therefore, and settle your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth near.
9 [g][h]Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: [i]behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10 [j]Take, my brethren, the Prophets for an example of suffering adversity, and of long patience, which have spoken in the name of the Lord.
11 Behold, we count them blessed which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have known what [k]end the Lord made. For the Lord is very pitiful and merciful.
12 [l]But before all things, my brethren, (A)swear not, neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other oath: but let [m]your yea, be yea, and your nay, nay, lest ye fall into condemnation.
13 [n]Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing.
14 [o]Is any sick among you? Let him call for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray for him, and anoint him with (B)[p]oil in the [q]Name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he have committed [r]sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 [s]Acknowledge your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed: [t]for the prayer of a righteous man availeth much, if it be fervent.
17 (C)Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again: and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 [u]Brethren, (D)If any of you hath erred from the truth, and some man hath [v]converted him,
20 Let him know that he which hath converted the sinner from going astray out of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Footnotes
- James 5:1 He denounceth utter destruction to the wicked and profane rich men, and such as are drowned in their riotousness, mocking at their foolish confidence when as there is nothing indeed more vain than such things.
- James 5:4 The Lord who is more mighty than ye are, hath heard them.
- James 5:5 Ye have pampered up yourselves.
- James 5:5 The Hebrews call a day that is appointed to solemn banqueting, a day of slaughter or feasting.
- James 5:7 He applieth that to the poor, which he spake against the rich, warning them to wait for the Lord’s coming patiently, who will revenge the injuries which the rich men do them.
- James 5:7 The taking away of an objection: Although his coming serve to linger, yet at the least we must follow the husbandmen, who do patiently wait for the times that are proper for the fruits of the earth. And again, God will not defer the least iota of the time that he hath appointed.
- James 5:9 He commendeth Christian patience, so that whereas others through impatience use to accuse one another, the faithful on the contrary side complain not, although they receive injury.
- James 5:9 By grudging, he meaneth a certain inward complaining which betokeneth impatience.
- James 5:9 The conclusion: The Lord is at the door, who will defend his own, and revenge his enemies, and therefore we need not to trouble ourselves.
- James 5:10 Because most men are wont to object, that it is good to repel injuries by what means soever, he setteth against that, the examples of the Fathers, whose patience had a most happy end, because God as a most bountiful Father, never forsaketh his.
- James 5:11 What end the Lord gave.
- James 5:12 Because even the best men sometimes through impatience break out into oaths sometimes lesser, sometimes greater, the Apostle warneth us to detest such wickedness, and to accustom our tongues to simple and true talk.
- James 5:12 That that you have to say or affirm, speak or affirm it simply, and without an oath: and that that you will deny, deny it simply and flatly.
- James 5:13 He showeth the best remedy against all afflictions, to wit, prayers which have their place both in sorrow and joy.
- James 5:14 He showeth peculiarly, to what physicians especially we must go, when we are diseased, to wit, to the prayers of the Elders, which then also could cure the body, (for so much as the gift of healing was then in force) and take away the chiefest cause of sickness and diseases, by obtaining for the sick through their prayers and exhortations, remission of sins.
- James 5:14 This was a sign of the gift of healing: and now seeing we have the gift no more, the sign is no longer necessary.
- James 5:14 By calling on the Name of the Lord.
- James 5:15 He hath reason in making mention of sins, for diseases are for the most part sent because of sins.
- James 5:16 Because God pardoneth their sins which confess and acknowledge them, and not theirs which justify themselves, therefore the Apostle addeth, that we ought freely to confer one with another touching those inward diseases, that we may help one another with our prayers.
- James 5:16 He commendeth prayers by the effects that come of them, that all men may understand that there is nothing more effectual than they are, so that they proceed from a pure mind.
- James 5:19 The taking away of an objection: All reprehensions are not condemned, seeing that on the contrary part there is nothing more acceptable to God, than to call into the way a brother that was wandering out of the way.
- James 5:19 Hath called him back from his way.
James 5
Living Bible
5 Look here, you rich men, now is the time to cry and groan with anguished grief because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. 2 Your wealth is even now rotting away, and your fine clothes are becoming mere moth-eaten rags. 3 The value of your gold and silver is dropping fast, yet it will stand as evidence against you and eat your flesh like fire. That is what you have stored up for yourselves to receive on that coming day of judgment. 4 For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. Their cries have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
5 You have spent your years here on earth having fun, satisfying your every whim, and now your fat hearts are ready for the slaughter. 6 You have condemned and killed good men who had no power to defend themselves against you.
7 Now as for you, dear brothers who are waiting for the Lord’s return, be patient, like a farmer who waits until the autumn for his precious harvest to ripen. 8 Yes, be patient. And take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.
9 Don’t grumble about each other, brothers. Are you yourselves above criticism? For see! The great Judge is coming. He is almost here. Let him do whatever criticizing must be done.[a]
10 For examples of patience in suffering, look at the Lord’s prophets. 11 We know how happy they are now because they stayed true to him then, even though they suffered greatly for it. Job is an example of a man who continued to trust the Lord in sorrow; from his experiences we can see how the Lord’s plan finally ended in good, for he is full of tenderness and mercy.
12 But most of all, dear brothers, do not swear either by heaven or earth or anything else; just say a simple yes or no so that you will not sin and be condemned for it.
13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should keep on praying about it. And those who have reason to be thankful should continually be singing praises to the Lord.
14 Is anyone sick? He should call for the elders of the church and they should pray over him and pour a little oil upon him, calling on the Lord to heal him. 15 And their prayer, if offered in faith, will heal him, for the Lord will make him well; and if his sickness was caused by some sin, the Lord will forgive him.
16 Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results. 17 Elijah was as completely human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years! 18 Then he prayed again, this time that it would rain, and down it poured, and the grass turned green and the gardens began to grow again.
19 Dear brothers, if anyone has slipped away from God and no longer trusts the Lord and someone helps him understand the Truth again, 20 that person who brings him back to God will have saved a wandering soul from death, bringing about the forgiveness of his many sins.
Sincerely, James
Footnotes
- James 5:9 Let him do whatever criticizing must be done, implied.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.