James 5:3

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.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — James addresses wealthy landowners in the closing phase of his letter, immediately following warnings about rotted riches and unpaid laborers. He confronts them directly as their stored wealth faces imminent divine reckoning.

The words — The Greek verb κατίωται (katiōtai) literally means "have corroded" or "have eaten away," describing the active decay of their hoarded metals. This physical deterioration functions as the tangible evidence that will condemn them.

The thread — The motif of hoarded wealth testifying against its owner runs parallel to the withheld wages crying out in James 5:4 and mirrors the stored wrath described in Romans 2:5. The eschatological warning aligns with the final judgment categories outlined in Revelation 21:8.

Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that material accumulation in the last days will not secure safety but will instead produce evidence of guilt. Readers must recognize that divine accountability operates through the very means of their oppression and hoarding.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

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.

Cross-references

Romans 2:5 But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
James 5:7 Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains.
Revelation 21:8 But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”
Isaiah 2:2 In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.
Revelation 20:15 And if anyone was found whose name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Genesis 31:52 This mound is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this mound to harm you, and you will not go past this mound and pillar to harm me.
Genesis 49:1 Then Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather around so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come:
Deuteronomy 32:33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
Joshua 24:27 And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the LORD has spoken to us, and it will be a witness against you if you ever deny your God.”
Job 14:16 For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.