James 5:6

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 5:6

Ye have condemned and killed the just ,.... Meaning not Christ, the Just One, as some have thought; whom the Jewish sanhedrim condemned as guilty of death, and got the sentence passed upon him, and him to be crucified by Pontius Pilate, on the day of slaughter, at the time of the passover, as some connect the last clause of the preceding verse with this; since the apostle is not writing to the Jerusalem Jews, nor to unbelievers, but to professors of religion; though he might say they did it,... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - James 5:6

Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you - Several by τον δικαιον , the just one, understand Jesus Christ, who is so called, Acts 3:14 ; Acts 7:52 ; Acts 22:14 ; but the structure of the sentence, and the connection in which it stands, seem to require that we should consider this as applying to the just or righteous in general, who were persecuted and murdered by those oppressive rich men; and their death was the consequence of their dragging them before the... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - James 5:6

Verse 6 6Ye have condemned. Here follows another kind of inhumanity, that the rich by their power oppressed and destroyed the poor and weak. He says by a metaphor that the just were condemned and killed; for when they did not kill them by their own hand, or condemn them as judges, they yet employed the authority which they had to do wrong, they corrupted judgments, and contrived various arts to destroy the innocent, that is, really to condemn and kill them. (139) By adding that the just did... 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 5:6

The climax of their sin. Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous one. Does this allude to the death of our Lord? At first sight it may well seem so. Compare St. Peter's words in Acts 3:14 , "Ye denied the Holy One and the Just ( δίκαιον );" St. Stephen's in Acts 7:52 , "the coming of the Just One ( τοῦ δικαίου );" and St. Paul's in Acts 22:14 , "to see the Just One ( τὸν δίκαιον )." But this view is dispelled when we remember how throughout this whole passage the... read more

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