Key Verse Spotlight
James 5:3 — Meaning and Application
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.”
James 5:3
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
Go to now, {ye} rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon {you}.
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
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.
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. {sabaoth: Heb. hosts}
Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
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