James 5:3

Read it in 5 translations

KJV King James Version

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.

BSB Berean Standard Bible

Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and consume your flesh like fire. You have hoarded treasure in the last days.

WEB World English Bible

Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days.

ASV American Standard Version

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.

YLT Young’s Literal Translation

your gold and silver have rotted, and the rust of them for a testimony shall be to you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye made treasure in the last days!

Surrounding context — James 5

1 Go to now, [ye] rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon [you].

2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

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.

4 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.

5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

6 Ye have condemned [and] killed the just; [and] he doth not resist you.

Read the whole chapter → · About James →

Topics connected to this verse

Original-language word links

These Hebrew/Greek tokens are linked by Strong's number. Click one for its lexicon definition and other occurrences.

Cross-references

Romans 2:5But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;James 5:7-8Be 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.Revelation 21:8But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.Revelation 20:15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.Isaiah 2:2And it shall come to pass in the last days, [that] the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.2 Timothy 2:17And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;Genesis 31:52This heap [be] witness, and [this] pillar [be] witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm.Micah 3:3Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.Job 16:8And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, [which] is a witness [against me]: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.Joshua 24:27And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.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 straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.Job 14:16-17For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?Deuteronomy 32:33-34Their wine [is] the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.2 Peter 3:3Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,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 last days.Micah 4:1But in the last days it shall come to pass, [that] the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.Revelation 17:16And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.Genesis 31:48And Laban said, This heap [is] a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed;

HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION

Compare classic commentaries on James 5:3

Put Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke, Calvin, Wesley, Barnes, Jamieson–Fausset–Brown, Aquinas’ Catena and other public-domain sources beside the passage.

Compare commentaries →