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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 Tobit 4:14 and James 5:4

Deuterocanon · New Testament

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Summary

James 5 echoes a Jewish teaching also found in Tobit that condemns delaying payment to workers. Both demand that the wealthy pay their workers promptly, using this as a measure of justice toward others.

Passages

Tobit 4:14

Deuterocanon
13 And now, my child, love your kindred, and do not scorn in your heart your kindred and the sons and the daughters of your people so as not to take one of them; for in scornfulness is destruction and much trouble, and in idleness is decay and great want, for idleness is the mother of famine. 14 Do not let the wages of any man, which shall work for you, stay with you, but render it to him out of hand: and if you serve God, recompense shall be made to you. Take heed to yourself, my child, in all your works, and be discreet in all your behaviour. 15 And what you yourself hate, do to no man. Do not drink wine to drunkenness, and do not let drunkenness go with you on your way. 16 Give of your bread to the hungry, and of your garments to them that are naked: of all your abundance give alms; and do not let your eye be grudging when you give alms.
225–175 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Tobit

James 5:4

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. 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.
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in James

References

"... In contrast to Jewish admonitions, including Jesus’, the rich that James addresses have stored up earthly treasures in order to hoard them for themselves. As Sirach says, they have stored their treasure under the stone, where it sits useless and becomes rusted and destroyed. James 5:4–6 elaborates on exactly how they have stored up these treasures. They have defrauded workers of their wages and kept the money for themselves (5:4), which was consistently denounced throughout Jewish tradition. (Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:14–15; Job 7:1–2; 24:10; 31:13, 38–40; Jeremiah 22:13; Malachi 3:5; Sirach 7:20; 31:4; 34:21ff; Tobit 4:14; Matthew 20:8; Testament of Job 12:4; Pseudo-Phocylides 19) The rich have also lived in luxury and self-indulgence (5:5). These expenditures do not mean the rich stopped hoarding wealth, but rather that they exchanged one form of hoarded wealth for another, namely, goods and luxuries. They have wasted their wealth on these indulgences in the “day of slaughter,” which refers to the coming day of God’s eschatological wrath ..."
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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Tobit 4:14 and James 5:4

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