James 5:7 - Exposition

Be patient therefore . In his concluding remarks St. James reverts to the point from which he started (comp. James 1:3 , James 1:4 ). ΄ακροθυμεῖν is here given a wider meaning than that which generally attaches to it. As was pointed out in the notes on James 1:3 , it ordinarily refers to patience in respect of persons. Here, however, it certainly includes endurance in respect of things, so that the husbandman is said μακροθυμεῖν where we should rather have expected ὑπομενεῖν (cf. Lightfoot on Colossians 1:11 ). Unto the coming of the Lord ( ἕως τῆς παρουσίας τοῦ κυρίου ); Vulgate, usque ad adventure Domiai. The word παρουσία had been used by our Lord himself of his return to judge, in Matthew 24:3 , Matthew 24:27 , Matthew 24:37 , Matthew 24:39 . It is also found in St. Paul's writings, only, however (in this sense), in Thessalonians ( 1 Thessalonians 2:19 ; 1 Thessalonians 3:13 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:15 ; 1 Thessalonians 5:23 ; 2 Thessalonians 2:1 , 2 Thessalonians 2:8 ) and 1 Corinthians 15:23 . St. Peter uses it in his Second Epistle ( 1 Corinthians 1:16 ; 1 Corinthians 3:4 , 1 Corinthians 3:12 ), as does St. John ( 1 John 2:28 ). Behold, the husbandman , etc. Consideration , exciting to patience , drawn from an example before the eyes of all. Until he receive ; better, taking γή as the subject of the verb, until it receive. The early and the latter rain . υετόν of the Received Text has the authority of A, K, L, and the Syriac Versions; א (with which agree the Coptic and Old Latin, if), καρπόν . B and the Vulgate omit the substantive altogether. In this they are followed by most critical editors (e.g. Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort), but not by the Revisers; and as the expression, πρώιμον καὶ ὄψιμον , without the substantive, is never found in the LXX ., it is safer to follow A and the Syriac in retaining ὑετόν here. (For " the early and the latter rain," comp. Deuteronomy 11:14 ; Jeremiah 5:24 ; Joel 2:23 ; Zechariah 10:1 ) "The first showers of autumn which revived the parched and thirsty soil and prepared it for the seed; and the later showers of spring which continued to refresh and forward both the ripening crops and the vernal products of the field" (Robinson, quoted in 'Dictionary of the Bible,' 2:994).