James 5:3 NIV

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 5:1-3

5:1-3 Come now, you rich, weep and wail at the miseries which are coming upon you. Your wealth is rotten and your garments are food for moths. Your gold and silver are corroded clean through with rust; and their rust is proof to you of how worthless they are. It is a rust which will eat into your very flesh like fire. It is a treasure indeed that you have amassed for yourselves in the last days! James 5:1-6 has two aims. First, to show the ultimate worthlessness of all earthly riches;... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 5:1-3

Not even the most cursory reader of the Bible can fail to be impressed with the social passion which blazes through its pages. No book condemns dishonest and selfish wealth with such searing passion as it does. The book of the prophet Amos was called by J. E. McFadyen "The Cry for Social Justice." Amos condemns those who store up violence and robbery in their palaces ( Amos 3:10 ). He condemns those who tread on the poor and themselves have houses of hewn stone and pleasant vineyards--which... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - James 5:3

Your gold and silver is cankered ,.... Or grown rusty like iron, by lying long without use; this is not easily and quickly done, but in length of time gold and silver will change, and contract a rustiness; and so this conveys the same idea of hoarding up riches and laying up money, without making use of it in trade, for the support of the poor, and without distributing it to their necessities: and the rust of them shall be a witness against you : at the day of judgment; which will be a... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - James 5:3

Your gold and silver is cankered - Instead of helping the poor, and thus honoring God with your substance, ye have, through the principle of covetousness, kept all to yourselves. The rust of them shall be a witness against you - Your putrefied stores, your moth-eaten garments, and your tarnished coin, are so many proofs that it was not for want of property that you assisted not the poor, but through a principle of avarice; loving money, not for the sake of what it could procure, but for... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - James 5:3

Verse 3 3A witness against you. He confirms the explanation I have already given. For God has not appointed gold for rust, nor garments for moths; but, on the contrary, be has designed them as aids and helps to human life. Therefore, even spending without benefit is a witness of inhumanity. The rusting of gold and silver will be, as it were, the occasion of inflaming the wrath of God, so that it will, like fire, consume them. Ye have heaped treasure together: These words may also admit of two... 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

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

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 5:1-3

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - James 5:1-3

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - James 5:3

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - James 5:3

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - James 5:3

The Pulpit Commentary - James 5:1-6

The Pulpit Commentary - James 5:1-6

The Pulpit Commentary - James 5:1-6

The Pulpit Commentary - James 5:1-6

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