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James

About this book
Chapter 5

1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming on you.⁠ 2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten.⁠ 3 Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you.⁠ It will consume your flesh like fire.⁠ It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! 4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.⁠ 5 You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.⁠ 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person, although he does not resist you. 7 So be patient, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s return. Think of how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient for it until it receives the early and late rains. 8 You also be patient and strengthen your hearts, for the Lord’s return is near. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be judged.⁠ See, the judge stands before the gates! 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name. 11 Think of how we regard as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. 12 And above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. But let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall into judgment.⁠ 13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint him with olive oil in the name of the Lord.⁠ 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up—and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.⁠ 17 Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months!⁠ 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest. 19 My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,⁠ 20 he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path will save that person’s soul from death⁠ and will cover a multitude of sins.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Joel 1:5 and James 5:1

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

James 5 uses the Greek Septuagint translation of Joel, where the gluttonous who drink wine are told to weep in response to loss. The language for mourning shares vocabulary associated with prophetic judgment, and James uses it to criticize the wealthy.

Passages

LXX Joel 1:5

Septuagint
3 Tell your children concerning them, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 4 The locust has eaten what the caterpillar left, and the palmerworm has eaten what the locust left, and the cankerworm has eaten what the palmerworm left. 5 Awake, you drunkards, from your wine, and weep: mourn, all you that drink wine to drunkenness: for joy and gladness are removed from your mouth. 6 For a strong and innumerable nation has come up against my land, their teeth are lion's teeth, and their back teeth those of a lion cub. 7 He has ruined my vine, and utterly broken my fig-trees: he has utterly searched my vine, and cast it down; he has peeled its branches.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Joel

James 5:1

New Testament
1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming on you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! 4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in James

References

"... James clearly denounces the rich with prophetic language. He tells them to “weep” by “wailing”. The verb is used throughout the Septuagint to express the weeping of those suffering God’s judgment (e.g., Lamentations 1:1–2; Isaiah 15:2, 5; 33:7; Jeremiah 8:23; Hosea 12:5; Joel 1:5). The verb occurs twenty-one times in the Septuagint, always in a context of prophetic judgment. The verb occurs only here in the New Testament. James therefore uses the combination of these two words from texts of prophetic judgment to denounce the rich who are defrauding the poor of their wages ..."
Todd Scacewater, “The Dynamic and Righteous Use of Wealth in James 5:1–6,” Journal of Markets & Morality 20.2 (2017): 227–242.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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LXX Joel 1:5 and James 5:1

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