Read & Study the Bible Online - Bible Portal
Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - James 5:1-11

The apostle is here addressing first sinners and then saints. I. Let us consider the address to sinners; and here we find James seconding what his great Master had said: Woe unto you that are rich; for you have received your consolation, Luke 6:24. The rich people to whom this word of warning was sent were not such as professed the Christian religion, but the worldly and unbelieving Jews, such as are here said to condemn and kill the just, which the Christians had no power to do; and though... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 5:4-6

5:4-6 Look you, the pay of the reapers who reaped your estates, the pay kept back from them by you, cries against you, and the cries of those who reaped have come to the ears of the Lord of Hosts. On the earth you have lived in soft luxury and played the wanton; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You condemned, you killed the righteous man, and he does not resist you. Here is condemnation of selfish riches and warning of where they must end. (i) The selfish rich have... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - James 5:4

Behold the hire of the labourers, which have reaped down your fields ,.... The wages agreed for by the day, with the labourers in their fields, particularly their reapers; which one instance serves for many others; and is the rather mentioned, because reaping is a laborious work, and those who are employed in it have nothing to live upon but their hand labour; and especially because they are made use of in cutting down the corn when it is fully ripe, and in great plenty; wherefore, to detain... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - James 5:4

The hire of the laborers - The law, Leviticus 19:13 , had ordered: The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning, every day's labor being paid for as soon as ended. This is more clearly stated in another law, Deuteronomy 24:15 ; : At his day thou shalt give him his hire; neither shall the sun go down upon it; - lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee. And that God particularly resented this defrauding of the hireling we see... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - James 5:4

Verse 4 4Behold, the hire. He now condemns cruelty, the invariable companion of avarice. But he refers only to one kind, which, above all others, ought justly to be deemed odious. For if a humane and a just man, as Solomon says in Proverbs 12:10, regards the life of his beast, it is a monstrous barbarity, when man feels no pity towards the man whose sweat he has employed for his own benefit. Hence the Lord has strictly forbidden, in the law, the hire of the laborer to sleep with us (Deuteronomy... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - James 5:1-6

DENUNCIATION OF THE RICH FOR The whole section resembles nothing so much as an utterance of one of the old Jewish prophets. It might almost be a leaf torn out of the Old Testament. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - James 5:1-6

The judgment on selfishness. Selfishness lay at the root of the sinfulness of the rich men, whose conduct is so sternly denounced. The sin read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - James 5:1-6

The judgments coming upon the wicked rich. This apostrophe is so dreadful that we cannot imagine it to have been addressed to professing Christians. It would rather seem that the apostle here turns aside to glance at the godless rich Jews of his time, who were in the habit of persecuting the Church and defrauding the poor ( James 2:6 , James 2:7 ). His words regarding them are words of stern denunciation. Like one of the old Hebrew prophets, he curses them in the name of the Lord. Its... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - James 5:1-6

The doom of misused wealth. We have in these opening words an echo of James 4:9 ; but with a difference. There, a call to repentance; here, a denunciation. The very word "howl" recalls old prophecies of doom ( Isaiah 13:6 ; Isaiah 14:31 ; Isaiah 15:3 ). So here, the coming doom. The destruction of Jerusalem? Yes; but this only the "beginning of sorrows." The culminating judgments, and the second advent These rich, these delicate-living and pleasure-taking ones? Yes, let them weep... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - James 5:4

accounts for the miseries that are coming upon them. Their sins are the cause. The language is modeled upon the Old Testament, and the special sin denounced is one that is expressly forbidden in the Law (see Deuteronomy 24:14 , Deuteronomy 24:15 , "Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it: for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord , and it... read more

Group of Brands