James 5:1-6

From the merely careless rich James turns to the actively oppressive, the fellows of those whom he lashes in James 2:6 f. For him, of course, the prophetic Day of the Lord was more assured and more definite than to the Jews he addressed; he had in thought the apocalypse of Mark 13, which was to receive a first fulfilment in the fall of Jerusalem. Even Jews of the Dispersion would feel many reflex effects of that catastrophe.

James 5:2 recalls Matthew 6:19. There was a kind of fuliginous vapour arising from the Dead Sea which rusted even gold, and this may have suggested the figure. For a testimony unto you is the figure of Mark 6:11. The dust of the city there is to be witness that the apostles have brought it their message; the rust of selfishly hoarded gold is similarly witness at the Judgement of the misuse of the stewardship of wealth. This night is thy life required of thee, is the message to these rich worldlings. The hire (Luke 12:20). kept back by you crieth out it is another mute witness, like the rust; cf. the stones in Luke 19:40; Habakkuk 2:11. On the OT title Yahweh Sebâ-'ô th, see 1 Samuel 1:3 *. You fattened yourselves in a day of slaughter, like sheep grazing greedily an hour before the butcher comes. So follows the climax of the indictment. It may well be based on the magnificent passage in Wisdom 2, especially 20. That for James the righteous one was pre-eminently Jesus (Acts 3:14) does not affect the wholly general reference of the term. It was indeed a special title of James himself, and occurs in Hegesippus's story of his martyrdom. He doth not resist you, echoes Isaiah 53:7; cf. especially Matthew 23:35.