22:13 “‘Sure to be judged 7 is the king who builds his palace using injustice
and treats people unfairly while adding its upper rooms. 8
He makes his countrymen work for him for nothing.
He does not pay them for their labor.
1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.
5:1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud 14 over the miseries that are coming on you. 5:2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten. 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! 15 5:4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5:5 You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 16 5:6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person, although he does not resist you. 17
5:1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud 18 over the miseries that are coming on you.
5:2 Do not be rash with your mouth or hasty in your heart to bring up a matter before God,
for God is in heaven and you are on earth!
Therefore, let your words be few.
5:3 Just as dreams come when there are many cares, 19
so 20 the rash vow 21 of a fool occurs 22 when there are many words.
1 tn Heb “the Egyptians.” For stylistic reasons this has been replaced by the pronoun “they” in the translation.
2 tn Heb “with rigor, oppression.”
3 sn The verb מָרַר (marar) anticipates the introduction of the theme of bitterness in the instructions for the Passover.
4 tn The preposition bet (ב) in this verse has the instrumental use: “by means of” (see GKC 380 §119.o).
5 tn Heb “and in all service.”
6 tn The line could be more literally translated, “All their service in which they served them [was] with rigor.” This takes the referent of בָּהֶם (bahem) to be the Egyptians. The pronoun may also resume the reference to the kinds of service and so not be needed in English: “All their service in which they served [was] with rigor.”
7 sn Heb “Woe.” This particle is used in laments for the dead (cf., e.g., 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 34:5) and as an introductory particle in indictments against a person on whom judgment is pronounced (cf., e.g., Isa 5:8, 11; Jer 23:1). The indictment is found here in vv. 13-17 and the announcement of judgment in vv. 18-19.
8 tn Heb “Woe to the one who builds his house by unrighteousness and its upper rooms with injustice using his neighbor [= countryman] as a slave for nothing and not giving to him his wages.”
sn This was a clear violation of covenant law (cf. Deut 24:14-15) and a violation of the requirements set forth in Jer 22:3. The allusion is to Jehoiakim who is not mentioned until v. 18. He was placed on the throne by Pharaoh Necho and ruled from 609-598
9 sn The image of the tenants mistreating the owner’s slaves pictures the nation’s rejection of the prophets and their message.
10 tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (ajpokriqei") is redundant in English and has not been translated.
11 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
12 sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in
13 tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on another which will not be thrown down.”
14 tn Or “wail”; Grk “crying aloud.”
15 tn Or “hoarded up treasure for the last days”; Grk “in the last days.”
16 sn James’ point seems to be that instead of seeking deliverance from condemnation, they have defied God’s law (fattened your hearts) and made themselves more likely objects of his judgment (in a day of slaughter).
17 tn Literally a series of verbs without connectives, “you have condemned, you have murdered…he does not resist.”
18 tn Or “wail”; Grk “crying aloud.”
19 tn The term עִנְיַן (’inyan) means “business; affair; task; occupation” (HALOT 857 s.v. עִנְיָן; BDB 775 s.v. עִנְיָן). HALOT nuances עִנְיַן בְּרֹב (bÿrov ‘inyan) as “excessive activity” (HALOT 857 s.v. עִנְיָן). Here, it is used as a metonymy of cause (i.e., tasks) for effect (i.e., cares). The term is nuanced variously: (1) literal sense: “business” (KJV, ASV, YLT, NEB, RSV) and “effort” (NASB), and (2) metonymical: “cares” (NAB, NIV, NRSV), “concerns” (MLB, Douay), “worries” (Moffatt) and “brooding” (NJPS). The LXX mistakenly related עִנְיַן to the root II עָנַה (’anah) “to afflict,” and rendered it as πειρασμοῦ (peirasmou, “trial”).
20 tn The juxtaposition of the two lines joined by vav (“just as…so…”) suggests a comparison (BDB 253 s.v. ו 1.j); see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 71, §437.
21 tn Heb “voice.” The Hebrew term קוֹל (qol, “voice”) is used as a metonymy of cause (i.e., voice) for the contents (i.e., the thing said), e.g., Gen 3:17; 4:23; Exod 3:18; 4:1, 9; Deut 1:45; 21:18, 20; 1 Sam 2:25; 8:7, 9; 2 Sam 12:18); see HALOT 1084 s.v. קוֹל 4.b; BDB 877 s.v. קוֹל 3.a; also E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 545–46. Contextually, this refers to a rash vow made by a fool who made a mistake in making it because he is unable to fulfill it.
22 tn The word “occurs” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
23 tn Grk “earth, telling.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in Greek.
sn He told followed by an infinitive (“to make an image…”) is sufficiently ambiguous in Greek that it could be taken as “he ordered” (so NIV) or “he persuaded” (so REB).
24 tn Grk “it”; the referent (the second beast) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
25 tn Grk “it was given [permitted] to it [the second beast].”
26 tn Grk “breath,” but in context the point is that the image of the first beast is made to come to life and speak.
27 tn Grk “of the beast”; the word “first” has been supplied to specify the referent.
28 tn Or “forced”; Grk “makes” (ποιεῖ, poiei).
29 tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.
30 tn Grk “and that no one be able to buy or sell.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Although the ἵνα (Jina) is left untranslated, the English conjunction “thus” is used to indicate that this is a result clause.
31 tn The word “things” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context. In the context of buying and selling, food could be primarily in view, but the more general “things” was used in the translation because the context is not specific.
32 tn Grk “except the one who had.”
33 tn Grk “his name or the number of his name.”
34 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
35 tn Some translations consider the word μυστήριον (musthrion, “mystery”) a part of the name written (“Mystery Babylon the Great,” so KJV, NIV), but the gender of both ὄνομα (onoma, “name”) and μυστήριον are neuter, while the gender of “Babylon” is feminine. This strongly suggests that μυστήριον should be understood as an appositive to ὄνομα (“a name, i.e., a mystery”).
36 tn Or “of the witnesses to Jesus.” Here the genitive ᾿Ιησοῦ (Ihsou) is taken as an objective genitive; Jesus is the object of their testimony.
37 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
38 tn Grk “I marveled a great marvel” (an idiom for great astonishment).