James 5:1

Ἄγε νῦν : See above James 4:13. κλαύσατε ὀλολύζοντες ἐπὶ ταῖς ταλαιπωρίαις ὑμῶν ταῖς ἐπερχομέναις : according to the original prophetic conception these “miseries” which were to overtake the wicked, were to come to pass in the “Day of the Lord,” i.e., during the Messianic Era; this belief became extended during the development of ideas which took place during the two centuries preceding the Christian Era. Whatever the reasons were which brought about the belief, it is certain that the expression “those days” came to be applied to a certain period which was immediately to precede the coming of the Messiah; without doubt a number of prophetical passages were regarded as suggesting this (see below). The descriptions given of these “days,” which are to foretell the advent of the Messiah, belong to apocalyptic conceptions; in their general outline the “signs” of these times are identical. Prophetical passages such as the following laid the foundation: “The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is laid up in store. The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him …”; then, on the other hand, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death …” (Hosea 13:12-14); again. “… The day of thy watchmen, even thy visitation, is come; now shall be their perplexity. Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide … for the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother … a man's enemies are the men of his own house” (Micah 7:4-6); another characteristic which played a great part in the later apocalypse is contained in Joel 2:10 ff., “the earth quaketh before them; the heavens tremble; the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.… Cf. Zechariah 14:6 ff.; Daniel 12:1, etc., etc. Throughout the immense domain of apocalyptic literature these themes are developed to an enormous extent; they are familiar to us from the Gospels, Matthew 24:25; Mark 13:14-27; Luke 21:9-19. In Jewish literature references to them also occur with frequency; this period is called the time of “travail,” and more specifically, the “birth-pangs,” or “sufferings” of the Messiah Cheble ha-Meshiach, or Cheblo shel Mashiach, see Pesikta rab., xxi. 34; Shabbath, 118 a; Sanhedrin, 96 b, 97 a, etc., etc. See further Oesterley, The Doctrine of the Last Things, chap. 7. The great diffusion and immense popularity which the apocalyptic literature enjoyed makes it certain that the writer of our Epistle was familiar with the subject; the “miseries,” therefore, referred to in the passage before us may quite possibly have reference to the sufferings which were to take place in the time of travail preceding the actual coming of the Messiah. ὀλολύζοντες : only here in the N.T., but fairly frequent in the Septuagint, Isaiah 13:6; Joel 1:5; Joel 1:13; Jeremiah 4:8, etc.; in the first of these passages the connection is the same as here, … ἐγγὺς γὰρ ἡμέρα κυρίου, and see Luke 6:24, “Woe unto you rich …,” which is strongly reminiscent of the verse before us.