James 5:5

Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.

Nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter ... This is a reference (a) to their delicate living and their pleasures, called here "nourishing their hearts" and (b) to the forthcoming destruction of Jerusalem, called here "a day of slaughter," the Old Testament expression meaning "the day of God's judgment" (Isaiah 34:6; Ezekiel 21:15); and let it be noted that the day had already arrived. Their sins continued in a day of slaughter, that is, up until the very moment of the impending judgment. As Carson put it, "They were like animals gorging themselves on the very day of their destruction."[13] As Adam Clarke said, concerning "the last days" of James 5:3, and the "day of slaughter" here, "This is not to be understood as the judgment day, but as the last days of the Jewish commonwealth."[14] Carson also said that the best exposition of this verse is "Josephus' account of the destruction of Jerusalem."[15]

[13] T. Carson, op. cit., p. 580.

[14] Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible, Vol. VI (London: Carlton and Porter, 1829), p. 824.

[15] T. Carson, op. cit., p. 580.