James 4:4 - Exposition

Ye adulterers and adulteresses . Omit μοιχοὶ καί , with א , A, B. The Vulgate has simply adulteri ; the Old Latin (ff), fornicatores. Similarly the Syriae. Very strange is this sudden exclamation, " ye adulteresses!" and very difficult to explain. The same word ( μοιχαλίς ) is used as a feminine adjective by our Lord in the expression, " an evil and adulterous generation"; and in this possibly lies the explanation of St. James's use of the term. More probably, however, it should be accounted for as a reminiscence of Ezekiel 23:45 , where we read of Samaria and Jerusalem under the titles of Aholah and Aholibah: "The righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses , and blood is in their hands. " It is remarkable too that in Malachi 3:5 the LXX . has μοιχαλίδες , although the Hebrew has the masculine, and men are evidently referred to. If, then, in the Old Testament the Jewish communities were personified as adulteresses, it is not unnatural for St. James to transfer the epithet to those Judaeo-Christian communities to which he was writing; and the word should probably be taken, just as in the Old Testament, of spiritual fornication, i.e. apostasy from God, shown in this case, not by actual idolatry, but by that " friendship of the world" which is "enmity with God," and by "covetousness which is idolatry." φιλία . The word occurs here only in the New Testament. With the thought of this verse, compare our Lord's words in John 15:18 , John 15:19 .