James 5:5

ἐτρυφήσατε : ἅπ. λεγ. in N.T.; it occurs in Sir 14:4 for the Hebrew בוע, [59] which means “to revel,” followed by ב. Luther translates: Ihr habt wohlgelebet, “Ye have lived well”; but the German word “schwelgen” so exactly describes the Greek that one wonders why he did not adopt it; the English “to revel” comes nearest to it, and this is the R.V. rendering of the word in the Sir. passage referred to. τρυφᾶν with its compounds is used in a good as well as in a bad sense; for the former see Psalms 37:4; Psalms 37:11; Isaiah 55:2; Isaiah 66:11; Nehemiah 9:25. ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς : the contrast is between their enjoyment of the good things of the earth and what their lot is to be hereafter; cf. Luke 16:25, “Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art in anguish”. ἐσπαταλήσατε : only elsewhere in N.T. in 1 Timothy 5:6; it occurs in Ezekiel 16:49 of the women of Jerusalem who are compared to those of Sodom; see also Sir 21:15; the compound κατασπ. occurs in Amos 6:4; Proverbs 29:21; neither the word itself nor its compound is used in a good sense, expressing as it does the living of a life of wanton self-indulgence. ἐθρέψατε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν : this use of καρδία is thoroughly Hebraic, לב being used in a very wide sense in Hebrew, cf. Psalms 104:15, “… and bread that strengtheneth man's heart” (לבב which does not differ from לב in meaning), cf. Judges 19:5. ἐν ἡμέρᾳ σφαγῆς : there is something extremely significant in this quotation from Jeremiah 12:3, because Jeremiah uses this expression (יום הרגה) as the day of judgment; and not only so, but this prophet had also coined a new word for Gehenna, viz., “Geharêgah” = “the valley of slaughter” (Jeremiah 7:32; Jeremiah 19:6). These expressions “day of slaughter” and “valley of slaughter” belong to Jeremiah (Enoch, xvi. 1 quotes the expression καὶ ἀπὸ ἡμέρας καιροῦ σφαγῆς), and in using the words “day of slaughter” the writer of our Epistle is undoubtedly giving them the meaning that they had originally; the passage before us probably means that these luxurious livers will be revelling in self-indulgence on the very day of judgment, cf. our Lord's words in Luke 17:27 ff., “They ate, they drank … and the flood came and destroyed them all … after the same manner shall it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed”. The tense ἐθρέψατε is in accordance with Hebrew usage of regarding a thing in the future as having already taken place; it is wholly in the prophetic style.

[59] This is not biblical Hebrew, which would be התענג (Isaiah 66:11), or התעזן (Nehemiah 9:25); בוע occurs in the Targums, but means there “to shout for joy”.