James 5:2

2 Your riches have decayed, and your clothes have been eaten by moths.

James 5:2 Meaning and Commentary

James 5:2

Your riches are corrupted
Either through disuse of them; and so the phrase is expressive of their tenaciousness, withholding that from themselves and others which is meet, and which is keeping riches for the owners thereof, to their hurt; or these are corrupted, and are corruptible things, fading and perishing, and will stand in no stead in the day of wrath, and therefore it is great weakness to put any trust and confidence in them:

and your garments are moth eaten;
being neither wore by themselves, nor put upon the backs of others, as they should, but laid up in wardrobes, or in chests and coffers, and so became the repast of moths, and now good for nothing.

James 5:2 In-Context

1 Pay attention to this if you're rich. Cry and moan about the misery that is coming to you.

2 Your riches have decayed, and your clothes have been eaten by moths.

3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be used as evidence against you. Like fire, it will destroy your body. You have stored up riches in these last days.

4 The wages you refused to pay the people who harvested your fields shout [to God] against you. The Lord of Armies has heard the cries of those who gather the crops.

5 You have lived in luxury and pleasure here on earth. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter.