King James Version
James 5
20 verses with commentary
Warning to the Rich
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.</strong> Come now, you rich, weep and howl (<em>ololuzete</em>, ὀλολύζετε) for miseries coming upon you. James issues prophetic woe against oppressive wealthy elites. Their judgment is imminent.<br><br>Reformed prophetic witness confronts systemic injustice. Wealth hoarded at others' expense will draw God's w...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(1) **Go to now, ye rich.**—As in James 4:3, it was “Woe to you, worldly,” so now “Woe to ye rich: weep, bewailing”—literally, *howling for your miseries coming upon you.* Comp. Isaiah 13:6; Isaiah 14:31; Isaiah 15:3, where (in the LXX.) the same term is used;—a picture word, imitating the cry of anguish,—peculiar to this place in the New Testament. Observe the immediate future of the misery; it i...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
16. A general axiomatic truth; it is "a testament"; not the testament. The testator must die before his testament takes effect (He 9:17). This is a common meaning of the Greek noun diathece. So in Lu 22:29, "I appoint (by testamentary disposition; the cognate Greek verb diatithemai) unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me." The need of death before the testamentary appointment take...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.</strong> Your riches are corrupted, garments moth-eaten. Wealth decays; luxury wardrobe rots. James emphasizes temporality of hoarded goods.<br><br>Reformed stewardship teaches that riches unused for kingdom purposes become evidence against us. Decay testifies to misplaced trust.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Your riches are corrupted . . .**—As expanded in the eloquent gloss of Bishop Wordsworth, “Your wealth is mouldering in corruption, and your garments, stored up in vain superfluity, are become moth-eaten: although they may still glitter brightly in your eyes, and may dazzle men by their brilliance, yet they are in fact already cankered; they are loathsome in God’s sight; the Divine anger has...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**17. after--**literally, "over," as we say "upon the death of the testators"; not as Tholuck, "on the condition that slain sacrifices be there," which the Greek hardly sanctions.
**otherwise--**"seeing that it is never availing" [Alford]. Bengel and Lachmann read with an interrogation, "Since, is it ever in force (surely not) while the testator liveth?"
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.</strong> Your gold and silver are corroded (<em>katioōtai</em>, κατιώται); their rust will eat flesh like fire. You hoarded treasure in the last days. James warns that wealth becomes evidence for condemnation.<b...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **Your gold and silver . . .**—In like manner, the gold and silver are said to be “cankered,” or eaten up with rust. The precious metals themselves do not corrode, but the base alloy does, which has been mixed with them for worldly use and device. *The rust of them shall be a witness to you*: not merely against, but convincing yourselves in the day of judgment; and, moreover, a sign of the fir...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**18. Whereupon--**rather, "Whence."
**dedicated--**"inaugurated." The Old Testament strictly and formally began on that day of inauguration. "Where the disposition, or arrangement, is ratified by the blood of another, namely, of animals, which cannot make a covenant, much less make a testament, it is not strictly a testament, where it is ratified by the death of him that makes the arrangement, ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.</strong> The wages withheld from laborers cry out; the Lord of hosts hears. Economic injustice is not silent—God hears exploited workers.<br><br>Reformed social ethics emphasize God's defens...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **Behold, the hire of the labourers.**—Not merely the wrong of the poor, but the wages kept back from him by the niggardly master, contrary to the merciful Jewish law (Leviticus 19:13), which permitted no delay in payment whatever (comp. Jeremiah 22:13; Malachi 3:5). And the indignant remonstrance of the text is “a swift witness” also against the like-minded of this generation—whose God is sel...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**19. For--**confirming the general truth, He 9:16.
**spoken ... according to the law--**strictly adhering to every direction of "the law of commandments contained in ordinances" (Ep 2:15). Compare Ex 24:3, "Moses told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice," &c.
**the blood of calves--**Greek, "the calves," namely, those sac...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.</strong> You lived in luxury (<em>tryphete</em>, τρυφήσατε) and self-indulgence, fattening hearts for day of slaughter. James likens indulgent rich to cattle oblivious to impending judgment.<br><br>Reformed teaching warns that luxury without mercy dulls spiritual senses. Comfor...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Ye have lived in pleasure.**—And what an indictment is this brought against them by the Apostle:—*Ye revelled upon earth, and wantoned; ye nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.* The pleasure and wantonness wherein the rich had lived, the selfishness with which they had cared for their own hearts, in a time of death for others—nay, preparation of like for themselves: this is the aggrav...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
20. Ex 24:8, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words." The change is here made to accord with Christ's inauguration of the new testament, or covenant, as recorded in Lu 22:20, "This cup (is) the new Testament in My blood, which is shed for you": the only Gospel in which the "is" has to be supplied. Luke was Paul's companion, which accounts for...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.</strong> You condemned (<em>katedikasate</em>, κατεδικάσατε) and killed (<em>ephoneusate</em>, ἐφονεύσατε) the righteous person; he does not resist. Oppression escalated to judicial murder of innocent believers, echoing Christ's own suffering.<br><br>Reformed believers recognize solidarity with persecuted righteous. James a...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **Ye have condemned and killed the just.**—Better thus: *Ye condemned, ye slew the just*—as in the speech of Peter (Acts 3:14-15), or that of Stephen (Acts 7:52). Such a reference, however, has been disallowed by some commentators, as conveying too harsh an accusation against the whole Jewish people*;* and besides, it being unfair to forget that St. James was writing to Christian Jews, as well...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
21. Greek, "And, moreover, in like manner." The sprinkling of the tabernacle with blood is added by inspiration here to the account in Ex 30:25-30; 40:9, 10, which mentions only Moses' anointing the tabernacle and its vessels. In Le 8:10, 15, 30, the sprinkling of blood upon Aaron and his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the altar, is mentioned as well as the anointing, so that we might natur...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Patience and Prayer
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be: or, Be long patient, or, Suffer with long patience
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.</strong> Be patient (<em>makrothymēsate</em>, μακροθυμήσατε) until the Lord's coming. James uses the farmer waiting for early and latter rain as metaphor for persevering hope.<br><br>Refor...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **Be patient.**—The third, and last, part of the Letter commences here with these exhortations towards endurance.
**Therefore**—*i.e.*, because of this your deep and abiding misery, be sure God’s help is nigh:—
“The darkest hour is on the verge of day.”
“Out of your stony griefs” build, like Jacob of old, a house of God (Genesis 28:19), whereunto you may run and find refuge. If there be wrath ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**22. almost--**to be joined with "all things," namely almost all things under the old dispensation. The exceptions to all things being purified by blood are, Ex 19:10; Le 15:5, &c.; 16:26, 28; 22:6; Nu 31:22-24.
**without--**Greek, "apart from."
**shedding of blood--**shed in the slaughter of the victim, and poured out at the altar subsequently. The pouring out of the blood on the altar i...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.</strong> Establish (<em>stērixate</em>, στηρίξατε) your hearts; the Lord's coming is near. James calls for resolute inner strength rooted in eschatological hope.<br><br>Reformed perseverance emphasizes heart-fortification through means of grace. Nearness of Christ fuels steadfastness.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.**—Read thus, *The presence of the Lord is nigh.* For the ancient belief in the nearness of Christ’s second advent, see Note above, in James 5:3. The word used by the Apostle to describe its closeness is the same as that used in Matthew 3:2, “The kingdom of heaven is *at hand*” The afflicted are therefore to establish, or rather *strengthen, *their hearts....
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**23. patterns--**"the suggestive representations"; the typical copies (see on He 8:5).
**things in the heavens--**the heavenly tabernacle and the things therein.
**purified with these--**with the blood of bulls and goats.
**heavenly things themselves--**the archetypes. Man's sin had introduced an element of disorder into the relations of God and His holy angels in respect to man. The purifi...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Grudge not one against another , brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Grudge not: or, Groan, or, Grieve not
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.</strong> Do not grumble (<em>stenazete</em>, στενάζετε) against one another lest you be judged; the Judge stands at the door. Internal complaints invite divine scrutiny.<br><br>Reformed community life values unity. James links eschatology with ethics: awareness of Christ's impending ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **Grudge not.**—Say in preference, *Murmur not. *“Grudge” has curiously changed its meaning from an outward murmur to an inward feeling. It has unfortunately been retained both here and in 1Peter 4:9. See also Psalm 59:15, specially the Prayer Book version, “They will . . . *grudge* if they be not satisfied”—*i.e., *complain and murmur.
**Lest ye . . .**—It is not “lest ye be condemned,” but *...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24. Resumption more fully of the thought, "He entered in once into the holy place," He 9:12. He has in He 9:13, 14, expanded the words "by his own blood," He 9:12; and in He 9:15-23, he has enlarged on "an High Priest of good things to come."
**not ... into ... holy places made with hands--**as was the Holy of Holies in the earthly tabernacle (see on He 9:11).
**figures--**copies "of the true"...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.</strong> Take the prophets as examples of suffering and patience. James roots perseverance in biblical history: faithful messengers endured affliction with steadfastness.<br><br>Reformed spirituality draws encouragement from saints of old. Scripture's narrative...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **For an example.**—Another reason for endurance, *an example of affliction and patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.* These are the bright ones in the cloud of witnesses, of whom the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 12:1) speaks, who, like Daniel, “stopped the mouths of lions”; like Jeremiah and Elijah, “escaped the edge of the sword;” “out of weakness were made strong”; w...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
25. As in He 9:24, Paul said, it was not into the typical, but the true sanctuary, that Christ is entered; so now he says, that His sacrifice needs not, as the Levitical sacrifices did, to be repeated. Construe, "Nor yet did He enter for this purpose that He may offer Himself often," that is, "present Himself in the presence of God, as the high priest does (Paul uses the present tense, as the lega...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.</strong> We count those blessed who endure. Job's perseverance and the Lord's compassion illustrate God's purpose. James highlights God's character: very compassionate (<em>polusplagchnos</em>, πολυσπλαγχνός) and merciful.<br...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(11) **We count them happy which endure.**—Rather read it, *we count them blessed which endure*; or, as some critics would have it, *endured.* (See Matthew 5:11, and 1Peter 2:19.) The heathen philosopher Solon called no one “happy” upon earth; but, with the mystery of pain around him, cried sadly, “Look to the end.” And the sated and weary soul of Solomon had no better thought than to praise “the ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**26. then--**in that case.
**must ... have suffered--**rather as Greek, "It would have been necessary for Him often to suffer." In order to "offer" (He 9:25), or present Himself often before God in the heavenly holiest place, like the legal high priests making fresh renewals of this high priestly function. He would have had, and would have often to suffer. His oblation of Himself before God was...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 11-14**
Dull hearers make the preaching of the gospel difficult, and even those who have some faith may be dull hearers, and slow to believe. Much is looked for from those to whom much is given. To be unskilful, denotes want of experience in the things of the gospel. Christian experience is a spiritual sense, taste, or relish of the goodness, sweetness, and excellence of the truths of...
Read full commentary →But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.</strong> Above all, do not swear—neither by heaven nor earth—but let your yes be yes and no be no, lest you fall under judgment. Integrity of speech replaces oath manipulation.<br><br>Reformed ethics pr...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(12) The question of the lawfulness of oaths has oftentimes perplexed alike the doctors of the Church and its simpler hearers of God’s word. The text, taken as it stands, would support the views of the Essenes, and many of the Paulicians, and other ancient sectaries. With equal force it might be urged by the followers of Peter Waldo, or the Unitas Fratrum (the Moravians), or the Society of Friends...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**27. as--**inasmuch as.
**it is appointed--**Greek, "it is laid up (as our appointed lot)," Col 1:5. The word "appointed" (so Hebrew "seth" means) in the case of man, answers to "anointed" in the case of Jesus; therefore "the Christ," that is, the anointed, is the title here given designedly. He is the representative man; and there is a strict correspondence between the history of man and that ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 11-14**
Dull hearers make the preaching of the gospel difficult, and even those who have some faith may be dull hearers, and slow to believe. Much is looked for from those to whom much is given. To be unskilful, denotes want of experience in the things of the gospel. Christian experience is a spiritual sense, taste, or relish of the goodness, sweetness, and excellence of the truths of...
Read full commentary →Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.</strong> Is anyone suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. James directs every emotion toward God—lament becomes prayer, joy becomes praise.<br><br>Reformed spirituality integrates all of life with God; prayer and worship are appropriate responses to both sorrow and celebration.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(13) We now pass on to advice of different kinds—to the heavy-laden or light-hearted, to the suffering and afflicted. Prayer is to be the refuge of one, praise the safeguard of another; the whole life is to revolve, as it were, around the throne of God, whether in the night of grief or day of joy.
**Let him pray.**—No worthier comment can be found than Montgomery’s hymn—
“Prayer is the burden of a...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**28. Christ--**Greek, "THE Christ"; the representative Man; representing all men, as the first Adam did.
**once offered--**not "often," He 9:25; just as "men," of whom He is the representative Head, are appointed by God once to die. He did not need to die again and again for each individual, or each successive generation of men, for He represents all men of every age, and therefore needed to di...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 11-14**
Dull hearers make the preaching of the gospel difficult, and even those who have some faith may be dull hearers, and slow to believe. Much is looked for from those to whom much is given. To be unskilful, denotes want of experience in the things of the gospel. Christian experience is a spiritual sense, taste, or relish of the goodness, sweetness, and excellence of the truths of...
Read full commentary →Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:</strong> Is anyone sick? Call the elders to pray, anointing with oil in the Lord's name. James combines pastoral care, tangible symbol, and communal prayer.<br><br>Reformed practice affirms the ordinary means of grace along with prayer for healing. O...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(14) **The elders of the church**—*i.e., *literally, *the presbyters.* The identity of “bishop” (*episcopus*) and “presbyter” in the language of the apostolic age seems conclusive. Such is the opinion of Lightfoot (*Epistle to the Philippians, *93-97; see also his *Dissertation on the Christian Ministry, ibid., *180-267), and few may hope to gainsay it. In fact, the organisation of the early Churc...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 11-14**
Dull hearers make the preaching of the gospel difficult, and even those who have some faith may be dull hearers, and slow to believe. Much is looked for from those to whom much is given. To be unskilful, denotes want of experience in the things of the gospel. Christian experience is a spiritual sense, taste, or relish of the goodness, sweetness, and excellence of the truths of...
Read full commentary →And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.</strong> The prayer of faith (<em>hē euchē tēs pisteōs</em>, ἡ εὐχὴ τῆς πίστεως) will save the sick, the Lord will raise him up, and if sins were committed, they will be forgiven. James connects healing, forgiveness, and God's sovereign action.<br><br>Ref...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 10 He 10:1-39. Conclusion of the Foregoing Argument. The Yearly Recurring Law Sacrifices Cannot Perfect the Worshipper, but Christ's Once-for-all Offering Can.
Instead of the daily ministry of the Levitical priests, Christ's service is perfected by the one sacrifice, whence He now sits on the right hand of God as a Priest-King, until all His foes shall be subdued unto Him. Thus the new c...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.</strong> Confess faults to one another and pray for one another so you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer (<em>energoumenē</em>, ἐνεργουμένη) of a righteous person avails much. James links community confession, intercession, and healin...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(16) **Confess your faults one to another.**—The meaning attributed to the words of this verse by many devout Catholics cannot be established either from the opinion of antiquity, or a critical examination of the Greek text according to modern schools. “We have,” observes Alford, “*a general injunction* arising out of a circumstance necessarily to be inferred in the preceding example (James 5:14-1...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2. For--**if the law could, by its sacrifices, have perfected the worshippers.
**they--**the sacrifices.
**once purged--**IF they were once for all cleansed (He 7:27).
**conscience--**"consciousness of sin" (He 9:9).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. subject: of the same nature, that is, a fellow mortal earnestly: or, in his prayer
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.</strong> Elijah was a man with a nature like ours; he prayed earnestly and it did not rain for three and a half years. James demystifies prophetic prayer: Elijah's powerful intercession flowed from earnest faith, not ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(17) **Elias.**—James supplies a lacuna in the story of Elijah. In 1Kings 17:1, the prophet simply and sternly tells Ahab “there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” Further on (1Kings 18:41-46) “there is a sound of abundance of rain.” In our Epistle we read that Elias “prayed earnestly”—literally, *prayed in his prayer, *a Hebraistic form of emphasis (see margin). He ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**3. But--**so far from those sacrifices ceasing to be offered (He 10:2).
**in, &c.--**in the fact of their being offered, and in the course of their being offered on the day of atonement. Contrast He 10:17.
**a remembrance--**a recalling to mind by the high priest's confession, on the day of atonement, of the sins both of each past year and of all former years, proving that the expiatory ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.</strong> Elijah prayed again, heaven gave rain, and the earth bore fruit. Persistent prayer reverses drought. James emphasizes that God responds to persevering intercession with tangible change.<br><br>Reformed believers see prayer as ordained means for God's providence. Elijah's example fuels hope for sp...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**4. For, &c.--**reason why, necessarily, there is a continually recurring "remembrance of sins" in the legal sacrifices (He 10:3). Typically, "the blood of bulls," &c., sacrificed, had power; but it was only in virtue of the power of the one real antitypical sacrifice of Christ; they had no power in themselves; they were not the instrument of perfect vicarious atonement, but an exhibition...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Restoring the Wanderer
Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;</strong> If anyone wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, restoration occurs. James calls the community to pursue straying believers.<br><br>Reformed ecclesiology stresses mutual care; church members are responsible for one another's perseverance.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(19) **Brethren.**—*My brethren, *it rather ought to be. The last, and, to some, the dearest of the wise Apostle’s remarks, is this on conversion; and it fitly closes his loving and plain-speaking Letter.
**If any of you do err . . .**—Better thus, *If one of you be led away from the truth, and one convert him.* It is not the wilful error, so much as the being seduced by others, who draw the unwar...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
5. Christ's voluntary self offering, in contrast to those inefficient sacrifices, is shown to fulfill perfectly "the will of God" as to our redemption, by completely atoning "for (our) sins."
**Wherefore--**seeing that a nobler than animal sacrifices was needed to "take away sins."
**when he cometh--**Greek, "coming." The time referred to is the period before His entrance into the world, when ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
View commentary (4 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.</strong> Whoever turns a sinner from error saves a soul from death and covers a multitude of sins. Restoration is lifesaving work. Love covers sins by leading people to repentance.<br><br>Reformed mission prioritizes reclaiming wanderers through gosp...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(20) **Let him know.**—Or, as it rather seems to be, *Know ye*; be absolutely sure of this, in a knowledge better than all the Gnostic and Agnostic learning of the day. *He which turneth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death*—the means thereto being given him by the Saviour of all—*and shall hide a multitude of sins;* not, of course, his own, but those of the penitent, br...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. burnt offerings--**Greek, "whole burnt offerings."
**thou hast had no pleasure--**as if these could in themselves atone for sin: God had pleasure in (Greek, "approved," or "was well pleased with") them, in so far as they were an act of obedience to His positive command under the Old Testament, but not as having an intrinsic efficacy such as Christ's sacrifice had. Contrast Mt 3:17.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
The office and duty of a high priest abundantly answered in Christ.(1-10)
The Christian Hebrews reproved for their little progress in the knowledge of the gospel.(11-14)
**Verses 1-10**
The High Priest must be a man, a partaker of our nature. This shows that man had sinned. For God would not suffer sinful man to come to him alone. But every one is welcom...
Read full commentary →