American Standard Version
James 5:3
3Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days.
James 5:3 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)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.
- New International Version (NIV)Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
Context of James 5:3
1Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. 2Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days. 4Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.
Read all of James 5James 5:3 word by word
ὁ χρυσὸς ὑμῶν καὶ ὁ ἄργυρος κατίωται καὶ ὁ ἰὸς αὐτῶν εἰς μαρτύριον ὑμῖν ἔσται καὶ φάγεται τὰς σάρκας ὑμῶν ὡς πῦρ· ἐθησαυρίσατε ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις.Read the interlinear
Cross-references for James 5:3
- 2 Timothy 2:17and their word will eat as doth a gangrene: of whom is Hymenæus and Philetus;
- Genesis 31:48And Laban said, This heap is witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed:
- Joshua 24:27And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it hath heard all the words of Jehovah which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness against you, lest ye deny your God.
- Job 16:8And thou hast laid fast hold on me, which is a witness against me: And my leanness riseth up against me, It testifieth to my face.
- Jeremiah 19:9And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their life, shall distress them.
- Micah 3:3who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
- Revelation 17:16And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire.
- Revelation 20:15And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
- Revelation 21:8But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.
- Deuteronomy 32:33Their wine is the poison of serpents, And the cruel venom of asps.
- Job 14:16But now thou numberest my steps: Dost thou not watch over my sin?
- Romans 2:5but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
- Genesis 49:1And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days.
- Isaiah 2:2And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
- Micah 4:1But in the latter days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow unto it.
- Acts 2:17And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams:
Commentaries on James 5:3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 3Your 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. 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…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 3Your gold and silver is cankered - That is, that you have heaped together, by injustice and fraud, a large amount, and have kept it from those to whom it is due, James 5:4, until it has become corroded. The word rendered is “cankered” ( ́ katiōtaidoes not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. It properly means “to cause to rust; to rust out” (Passow); “to be corroded with rust” (Robinson); to be spotted with rust. It is true that gold and silver do not…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 3Material wealth, like gold and silver, is worthless when facing God's judgment. It will actually speak against them because they obtained it unfairly and used it wickedly ( 5:4, 5–6).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 33. is cankered--"rusted through" [Alford]. 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. 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. as ... fire--not with the slow process of rusting, but with the swiftness of consuming fire. for the last…Read the comment
Topics related to James 5:3
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on James 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
American Standard Version — 1901 — Public Domain
Commentaries