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About this book

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 Leviticus 19:18 and James 5:9

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

James echoes Leviticus 19 by telling readers not to hold grudges within the community. By echoing this command, James places its teaching in continuity with the Torah and applies its ethical demands to everyday communal life.

Passages

Leviticus 19:18

Hebrew Bible
16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. I am the Lord. 17 You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him. 18 You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. 19 You must keep my statutes. You must not allow two different kinds of your animals to breed together, you must not sow your field with two different kinds of seed, and you must not wear a garment made of two different kinds of material.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

James 5:9

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

References

"... the qualifying prepositional phrase "against one another" indicates that the concern is for attitudes and relationships within the church. "Groaning" against one another surely is a reference to complaining about one another, which is in fact a kind of judging, and so this verse is an application of both James's and Jesus's prohibitions against judging each other (James 4:11-12; Matthew 7:1). Grumbling is the opposite of patience and thus also is a mark of unbelief; it is contrary to genuine faith. Further, as Johnson suggests, we have here another connection to Leviticus 19:18 (cited by James earlier), the first part of which commands the Israelites not to bear grudges against one another (though a different word is used in the LXX of Leviticus) ..."
Peter H. Davids, James (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), 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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Leviticus 19:18 and James 5:9

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