English Standard Version
James 5:2
2Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
James 5:2 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
- New International Version (NIV)Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
- New Living Translation (NLT)Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags.
Context of James 5:2
1Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3Your 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. 4Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
Read all of James 5James 5:2 word by word
ὁ πλοῦτος ὑμῶν σέσηπεν καὶ τὰ ἱμάτια ὑμῶν σητόβρωτα γέγονεν·Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for James 5:2
- Jeremiah 17:11Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool.
- Matthew 6:19"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
- Luke 12:33Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
- 1 Peter 1:4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
- James 2:2For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in,
- Job 13:28Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
- Psalms 39:11When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah
- Isaiah 50:9Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
- Isaiah 51:8For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations."
- Hosea 5:12But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
Commentaries on James 5:2
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 2Your riches are corrupted - · Are putrefied. The term , riches, is to be taken here, not for gold, silver, or precious stones, (for these could not putrefy), but for the produce of the fields and flocks, the different stores of grain, wine, and oil, which they had laid up in their granaries, and the various changes of raiment which they had amassed in their wardrobes.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 2Your riches are corrupted - The word here rendered “corrupted” ( ́ sēpō) does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. It means, to cause to rot, to corrupt, to destroy. The reference here is to their hoarded treasures; and the idea is, that they had accumulated more than they needed for their own use; and that, instead of distributing them to do good to others, or employing them in any useful way, they kept them until they rotted or spoiled. It is to…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 2The wealth and fine clothes are so excessive that they decay from not being used. Their ruin is a sign of the anticipated judgment.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 22. corrupted--about to be destroyed through God's curse on your oppression, whereby your riches are accumulated (Jas 5:4). Calvin thinks the sense is, Your riches perish without being of any use either to others or even to yourselves, for instance, your garments which are moth-eaten in your chests. garments ... moth-eaten--referring to Mt 6:19, 20.Read the comment
Topics related to James 5:2
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
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries