Warning to Rich Oppressors

5 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. ² Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten.^{(A) 3} Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure^[a] during the last days. ⁴ Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.^{(B) 5} You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.^{(C) 6} You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

¹⁷ As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.^(A)

² “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.^(A)

⁶ But you have dishonored the poor person. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into the courts?^(A)

²³ But when he heard this, he became sad, for he was very rich. ²⁴ Jesus looked at him^[a] and said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!^{(A) 25} Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Complacent Self-Indulgence Will Be Punished