Teks -- James 5:3 (NET)

5:3 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!

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Robertson: Jam 5:3 - Are rusted

Are rusted ( katiōtai ).

Perfect passive indicative (singular for chrusos and arguros are grouped as one) of katioō , late verb (from ios , rust) with perfective sense of kata , to rust through (down to the bottom), found only here, Sir. 12:11, Epictetus ( Diss. 4, 6, 14).

Robertson: Jam 5:3 - Rust

Rust ( ios ).

Poison in Jam 3:8; Rom 3:13 (only N.T. examples of old word). Silver does corrode and gold will tarnish. Dioscorides (V.91) tells about gold being rusted by chemicals. Modern chemists can even transmute metals as the alchemists claimed.

Robertson: Jam 5:3 - For a testimony

For a testimony ( eis marturion ).

Common idiom as in Mat 8:4 (use of eis with accusative in predicate).

Robertson: Jam 5:3 - Against you

Against you ( humin ).

Dative of disadvantage as in Mar 6:11 (eis marturion autois ) where in the parallel passage (Luk 9:5) we have eis marturion ep' autous . "To you"will make sense, as in Mat 8:4; Mat 10:18, but "against"is the idea here as in Luk 21:13.

Robertson: Jam 5:3 - Shall eat

Shall eat ( phagetai ).

Future middle (late form from ephagon ) of defective verb esthiō , to eat.

Robertson: Jam 5:3 - Your flesh

Your flesh ( tas sarkas ).

The plural is used for the fleshy parts of the body like pieces of flesh (Rev 17:16; Rev 19:18, Rev 19:21). Rust eats like a canker, like cancer in the body.

Robertson: Jam 5:3 - As fire

As fire ( hōs pur ).

Editors differ here whether to connect this phrase with phagetai , just before (as Mayor), for fire eats up more rapidly than rust, or with the following, as Westcott and Hort and Ropes, that is the eternal fire of Gehenna which awaits them (Mat 25:41; Mar 9:44). This interpretation makes a more vivid picture for ethēsaurisate (ye have laid up, first aorist active indicative of thēsaurizō , Mat 6:19 and see Pro 16:27), but it is more natural to take it with phagetai .

Vincent: Jam 5:3 - Is cankered

Is cankered ( κατίωται )

Only here in New Testament, from ἰός , rust, as in the following sentence. Also poison , as Jam 3:8. The preposition κατά indicates thoroughness, completely rusted.

Vincent: Jam 5:3 - Flesh

Flesh ( τὰς σάρκας )

The noun is plural: the fleshy parts of the body. So Sept. (2 Kings 9:36): " the flesh (τὰς σάρκας ) of Jezebel." So Rev 19:18.

Wesley: Jam 5:3 - The canker of them

Your perishing stores and motheaten garments.

Wesley: Jam 5:3 - Will be a testimony against you

Of your having buried those talents in the earth, instead of improving them according to your Lord's will.

Wesley: Jam 5:3 - And will eat your flesh as fire

Will occasion you as great torment as if fire were consuming your flesh.

Wesley: Jam 5:3 - Ye have laid up treasure in the last days

When it is too late; when you have no time to enjoy them.

JFB: Jam 5:3 - is cankered

"rusted through" [ALFORD].

JFB: Jam 5:3 - rust . . . witness against you

In the day of judgment; namely, that your riches were of no profit to any, lying unemployed and so contracting rust.

JFB: Jam 5:3 - shall eat your flesh

The rust which once ate your riches, shall then gnaw your conscience, accompanied with punishment which shall prey upon your bodies for ever.

JFB: Jam 5:3 - as . . . fire

Not with the slow process of rusting, but with the swiftness of consuming fire.

JFB: Jam 5:3 - for the last days

Ye have heaped together, not treasures as ye suppose (compare Luk 12:19), but wrath against the last days, namely, the coming judgment of the Lord. ALFORD translates more literally, "In these last days (before the coming judgment) ye laid up (worldly) treasure" to no profit, instead of repenting and seeking salvation (see on Jam 5:5).

Clarke: Jam 5:3 - Your gold and silver is cankered

Your gold and silver is cankered - Instead of helping the poor, and thus honoring God with your substance, ye have, through the principle of covetousness, kept all to yourselves

Clarke: Jam 5:3 - The rust of them shall be a witness against you

The rust of them shall be a witness against you - Your putrefied stores, your moth-eaten garments, and your tarnished coin, are so many proofs that it was not for want of property that you assisted not the poor, but through a principle of avarice; loving money, not for the sake of what it could procure, but for its own sake, which is the genuine principle of the miser. This was the very character given to this people by our Lord himself; he called them φιλαργυροι, lovers of money. Against this despicable and abominable disposition, the whole of the 12th chapter of St. Luke is levelled; but it was their easily besetting sin, and is so to the present day

Clarke: Jam 5:3 - Shall eat your flesh as it were fire

Shall eat your flesh as it were fire - This is a very bold and sublime figure. He represents the rust of their coin as becoming a canker that should produce gangrenes and phagedenous ulcers in their flesh, till it should be eaten away from their bones

Clarke: Jam 5:3 - Ye have heaped treasure together

Ye have heaped treasure together - This verse is variously pointed. The word ὡς, like as, in the preceding clause, is left out by the Syriac, and some others; and πυρ, fire, is added here from that clause; so that the whole verse reads thus: "Your gold and your silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall consume your flesh. Ye have treasured up Fire against the last days."This is a bold and fine image: instead of the treasures of corn, wine, and oil, rich stuffs, with silver and gold, which ye have been laying up, ye shall find a treasure, a magazine of fire, that shall burn up your city, and consume even your temple. This was literally true; and these solemn denunciations of Divine wrath were most completely fulfilled. See the notes on Matthew 24 (note), where all the circumstances of this tremendous and final destruction are particularly noted

By the last days we are not to understand the day of judgment, but the last days of the Jewish commonwealth, which were not long distant from the date of this epistle, whether we follow the earlier or later computation, of which enough has been spoken in the preface.

Calvin: Jam 5:3 - A witness against you // Ye have heaped treasure together

3.A witness against you. He confirms the explanation I have already given. For God has not appointed gold for rust, nor garments for moths; but, on the contrary, be has designed them as aids and helps to human life. Therefore, even spending without benefit is a witness of inhumanity. The rusting of gold and silver will be, as it were, the occasion of inflaming the wrath of God, so that it will, like fire, consume them.

Ye have heaped treasure together: These words may also admit of two explanations: — that the rich, as they would always live, are never satisfied, but weary themselves in heaping together what may be sufficient to the end of the world, — or, that they heap together the wrath and curse of God for the last day; and this second view I embrace. ¹³⁸

Defender: Jam 5:3 - for the last days

This section (Jam 5:1-9) is obviously set in the context of "the last days." While it is true that the disparity between rich and poor has always been a great problem (and thus any period in church history could have been held to fulfill this prophecy), it also seems true that the problem grows more severe every year. Communism, which all but conquered the world before it suddenly disintegrated, was fueled by intellectuals who took advantage of the feeling of hopelessness in the downtrodden masses, on whose backs had been built the great fortunes of the wealthy classes. The institution of slavery had already contributed to the amassing of wealth by prosperous merchants and landowners in many nations. Even now, despite the development of a superficial democracy in various nations, the reality is that wealth and political influence in greater and more insidious - even conspiratorial - financial empires have concentrated the wealth of the world in the hands of a relatively small number of multi-national power brokers. That this will still be the case in the very last days before Christ returns is evident from the graphic description of the destruction of commercial Babylon in Revelation 18."

TSK: Jam 5:3 - cankered // a witness // and shall // Ye have // the last

cankered : 2Ti 2:17

a witness : Gen 31:48, Gen 31:52; Jos 24:27; Job 16:8

and shall : Jer 19:9; Mic 3:3; Rev 17:16, Rev 20:15, Rev 21:8

Ye have : Deu 32:33, Deu 32:34; Job 14:16, Job 14:17; Rom 2:5

the last : Gen 49:1; Isa 2:2; Mic 4:1; Act 2:17; 2Pe 3:3

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Jam 5:3 - 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

Your gold and silver is cankered the most precious and lasting metals; yet even they, with long disuse, canker, and go to decay. Under these, other metals in esteem among them may be understood.

And the rust of them shall be a witness against you: by a prosopopoeia, that which properly belongs to living persons is ascribed to dead things, as Hab 2:11 Luk 19:40 . It is as much as if he had said: The rust shall be a certain evidence against you, and which will as effectually convict you, as any living witness could do, of your folly in putting your trust in perishing things, your greediness in hoarding them up, your unmercifulness in not supplying the wants of others, and your unreasonableness in denying the use of them to yourselves, when you had rather let them lie by and perish, than enjoy the comfort of them, or do good with them. The like expression we have, Mar 6:11 .

And shall eat your flesh the rust (the witness of your covetousness and cruelty) which now eats your money, shall hereafter devour yourselves, soul and body, (which he means by flesh ), viz. by procuring and kindling the wrath of God upon you, (compared to fire), and likewise by galling your consciences with a vexatious remembrance of your sin and folly; and so what in the judgment is a witness against you, in hell will be a tormentor to you.

As it were fire as if you had reserved fire in your treasure, as well as treasure in your chests.

Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days: either this may be understood metaphorically, ye have heaped a treasure of wrath for the last days, Rom 2:5 ; or literally, ye have hoarded up your wealth against the last and fatal days, in which God is bringing those judgments upon you which will consume all.

Haydock: Jam 5:1-6 - Go // You have feasted

Go now rich men, &c. In the first six verses, he gives admonitions to those among the Christians who were rich, not to rely on riches, nor value themselves on this account. You must look upon your riches and treasures as if they were already putrefied and corrupted, your gold and silver eaten and consumed with rust: and their rust shall rise in testimony and judgment against you, for not making better use of them. As your coin is eaten with rust, so shall your bodies be hereafter as it were eaten and consumed by fire. You heap up to yourselves a treasure in the day of wrath, while through covetousness, and hard heartedness, you defraud labourers of their hire, living at the same time in feasting and luxury, as in the day of slaughter. That is, feasting as men are accustomed to do, on the days when victims are slaughtered, offered, and eaten with great rejoicing. Others expound it, as if you were feeding, and making yourselves fit sacrifices and victims for God's anger and indignation. (Witham) ---

You have feasted, &c. The Greek is, "you have lived in delicacies and debaucheries, and have feasted upon your hearts as for the day of sacrifice:" Greek: Etruphesate, kai espatalesate ethrepsate tas kardias umon os en emera sphages. That is, you have fattened yourselves with good cheer and sensual pleasures, like victims prepared for solemn sacrifice. (Calmet) ---

Others among you have unjustly oppressed, accused, and brought to condemnation the just one, by which seems to be understood just and innocent men, who are divers times deprived of their fortunes, and even of their lives, by the unjust contrivances of powerful wicked men. (Witham)

Gill: Jam 5:3 - 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

Your gold and silver is cankered,.... Or grown rusty like iron, by lying long without use; this is not easily and quickly done, but in length of time gold and silver will change, and contract a rustiness; and so this conveys the same idea of hoarding up riches and laying up money, without making use of it in trade, for the support of the poor, and without distributing it to their necessities:

and the rust of them shall be a witness against you: at the day of judgment; which will be a proof that they have not been employed to such services, and for such usefulness, for which they were designed and given.

And shall eat your flesh as it were fire; that is, a remembrance of this, a sense of it impressed upon them, shall be like fire in their bones; shall distress their minds, gnaw their consciences, and be in them the worm that never dies, and the fire that shall never be quenched:

ye have heaped treasure together for the last days; either for many years, as the fool in the Gospel, for the times of old age, the last days of men, for fear they should then want; or for the last days of the world, or of time, as if they thought they should live for ever: the Vulgate Latin version reads, "ye have treasured up wrath for yourselves in the last days"; instead of riches, as they imagined; and that by their covetousness and wickedness, by a wicked disuse of their riches, and an unrighteous detention of them; but this supplement seems to be taken from Rom 2:5 though the sense is confirmed by some copies which connect the phrase, "as it were fire", in the preceding clause, with this, "ye have treasured up as it were fire"; and the Syriac version renders it, "ye have treasured up fire"; the fire of divine wrath; this is the fruit of treasuring up riches in an ill way, and without making a proper use of them.