James 5:4 - Exposition

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 be sin unto thee;" cf. Malachi 3:5 , "I will be a swift witness … against those that oppress the hireling in his wages ( LXX ., ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀποστεροῦντας μισθὸν μισθωτοῦ )" Later allusions to the same sin are found in Tobit 4:14; Ecclesiasticus 34:22. Which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth. For ἀπεστερημένος of the Received Text, read ἀφυστερημένος ( א , B). It is possible to join the words ἀφ ὑμῶν with κράζει , but it is more natural to take them as the A.V. with ἀφυστερημένος . Reaped … reaped ( ἀμησάντων … θερισάντων ); R.V., "mowed … reaped." But it would seem that the words should have been reversed, as, judging by Old Testament usage, ἀμάω is always used of corn (Le 25:11; Deuteronomy 24:19 ; Isaiah 17:5 ; Isaiah 37:30 ; Micah 6:15 ); while θερίζειν is the wider word, including all "harvesting," and used of χόρτος in Psalms 128:1-6 . (127) 7; Jeremiah 9:22 . Into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth . These words are adopted from Isaiah 5:9 , κύριος σαβαώθ , a Grecized form of the Hebrew תואבץ הוהי , frequent in the LXX . Found in the New Testament only here and Romans 9:29 (in a quotation); elsewhere, e.g. in the Apocalypse, it is represented by παντοκράτωρ ( Revelation 1:8 , etc); so also in 2 Corinthians 6:18 (equivalent to 2 Samuel 7:8 ).