James 5 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Roughly AD 45 to 62, when large estates worked by hired day labourers dominated agriculture in the Roman provinces
Location
Jewish Christian communities across the eastern Roman world, with the harvest scenes set in the farmland of the Levant
Audience
Jewish believers in Jesus, including labourers cheated of wages, and the wealthy landowners the opening addresses
Situation
James opens with a denunciation of rich landowners whose withheld wages cry out against them, then urges suffering believers to be patient like a farmer waiting for rain. He closes with instructions about oaths, prayer in sickness, anointing by the elders, confession, and bringing back someone who has wandered.
Key Background
Day labourers in the region were paid at the end of each day because they had no savings to live on, and the law of Moses specifically required it, so withholding wages was not slow payment but a direct threat to a family's food that night. The early and late rains name the two rainfalls of the Levantine agricultural year, one in autumn to soften ground for sowing and one in spring to fill out the grain, and a farmer had no control over either, which is the point of the comparison. Anointing the sick with olive oil combined a recognized medical treatment of the period with a religious act, and the elders who performed it were the recognized leaders of a congregation, a structure carried over from the synagogue.
Now listen up, you people — weep and over the that's coming your way.
Your wealth has and have your clothes.
Your gold and silver have and their corrosion will you and consume your flesh like fire. You've been stockpiling wealth in the
Listen — the you from the workers who harvested your fields are out! The cries of those harvesters have reached the ears of of
You've lived on the earth in and You've up for the of
You've and the just and they don't resist you.
So be and until the Look at how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being for it until it gets the and
You too, be patient. because the Lord's arrival is
Don't against each other, brothers and sisters, or you'll be judged. Look — the is standing right at the door.
Brothers and sisters, take the who spoke in the name of as your example of and patience.
Look, we consider those who to be the ones who You've heard about Job's endurance and you've seen what Yahweh ultimately brought about — because Yahweh is and
Above all, my brothers and sisters, don't — not by heaven, not by earth, not by anything else. Let your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' be no, so you won't fall under
Is anyone among you They should Is anyone feeling good? They should
Is anyone among you They should call for the of the and they should pray over them, them with in the name of the Lord.
And the prayer offered in will the one who is sick — the Lord will them up. And if they've committed they'll be forgiven.
So your failures to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a person with is and
was a being just us. He prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain on the land for three years and six months.
Then he prayed again, and the and the earth grew its crops.
My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you from the and someone them
know this: whoever who has from the will that from and will a of