Yaakov 5:7-20

7 Have zitzfleisch (patience), therefore, Achim b’Moshiach, until the Bias HaMoshiach, the Coming of Moshiach Adoneinu. Hinei, the ikar (farmer) awaits the precious p’ri haAdamah (fruit of the earth), having zitzfleisch (patience) for it until it receives the Yoreh (first autumn rain) and the Malkosh (spring rain). [Dt 11:14; Jer 5:24; Joel 2:23]

8 You must also have zitzfleisch. Strengthen your levavot, because the Bias HaMoshiach, the Coming of Moshiach Adoneinu, has drawn near.

9 Do not murmur, Achim b’Moshiach, against one another, lest you be judged. Hinei, haShofet is standing before the delet! [SHEMOT 15:24; 16:2; 17:3; BAMIDBAR 14:2,29; 16:41; TEHILLIM 94:2]

10 Achim b’Moshiach, take as an example, of yissurim (suffering) and of zitzfleisch (patience) the Nevi’im who spoke b’Shem Adonoi.

11 Hinei, we call me’ashirim the ones having endured: the enduring orech ru’ach (patience) of Iyov you heard of, and the toitzaa (outcome) from Hashem you saw, that Eloheinu is full of rachamim and channun Hashem. [Job 1:21,22; 2:10; 42:10,12-17; Ex 34:6; Num 14:18; Ps 103:8]

12 But, above all, my Achim b’Moshiach, do not swear shevuot (oaths) neither by Shomayim nor by ha’aretz nor any other shevu’ah, but let your "ken" be "ken," and your "lo" be "lo," for fear that you fall under HaDin (the Judgment).

13 If anyone is suffering among you, let him daven. If anyone has simcha, let him sing niggunim. [Ps 50:15]

14 Are there any cholim (sick ones) among you? Let the choleh (sick person) summon [for Bikkur Cholim (Visiting the Sick)] the Ziknei HaKehillah (Elders of the Congregation) and let them daven tefillos over him, having applied the shemen mishchah (anointing oil), b’Shem Adoneinu. [Ps 23:5; Isa 1:6]

15 And the tefillah of emunah will deliver the choleh (sick person), and Hashem will raise him up. And if he may have been committing peysha’im, he will be given selicha (forgiveness).

16 Therefore, make vidduy (confession of sin) to one another, and daven tefillos on behalf of one another, so that you may have refuah sheleimah (complete healing). The tefillah of a tzaddik is powerful and effective.

17 Eliyahu [HaNavi] was a man of like nature to us, and with tefillah he davened for it not to rain, and it did not rain upon ha’aretz for shalosh shanim and shishah chodashim (three years and six months). [MELACHIM ALEF 17:1]

18 And again Eliyahu [HaNavi] davened, and Shomayim gave GESHEM (rain) and ha’aretz caused its p’ri to sprout. [MELACHIM ALEF 18:45]

19 My Achim b’Moshiach, if anyone among you wanders vait (astray) from HaEmes and someone turns a choteh (sinner) to become a ba’al teshuva

20 You should have da’as that the one having helped a choteh (sinner) to become a ba’al teshuva and to turn from the toyus (error) of his derech, and from setiyah HaDerech Hashem (turning aside or deviating from the Way of Hashem) will save the neshamah of him from mavet and will cover a multitude of chatta’im. [T.N. This may be the earliest writing in the Brit Chadasha. Of royal blood, Ya’akov Bar Yosef Ben Dovid, like Rav Sha’ul, was an unbeliever until he came to faith by the appearance of the Risen Moshiach (see I Cor 15:7). He died al kiddush ha-Shem 62 C.E. according to Josephus. His brother Yehuda wrote the letter on p.1118. See p848.]

Yaakov 5:7-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JAMES 5

In this chapter the apostle reproves the vices of rich men, and denounces the judgments of God upon them; exhorts the saints to patience under sufferings; warns them from vain and profane swearing, and presses to various duties and branches of religious worship, private and public, and to the performance of several good offices of love to one another. He represents the miseries of wicked rich men as just at hand, Jas 5:1 because they made no use of their riches, either for themselves, or others, and because of the trust they put in them, heaping them up against a time to come, Jas 5:2,3, and because of their injustice in detaining the hire of labourers from them, Jas 5:4 and because of their wantonness and luxury, Jas 5:5 and because of their cruelty to the innocent, Jas 5:6 and such who suffer at their hands are exhorted to exercise patience, from the instance of the husbandman waiting patiently for the fruit of the earth, and the rain to produce it; and from the consideration of the coming of Christ, the Judge, being near at hand, Jas 5:7-9 and from the example of the prophets of the Lord, who suffered much, and were patient, and so happy; and particularly from the instance of Job, his patience, the end of the Lord in his afflictions, and his pity and compassion towards him, Jas 5:10,11. But of all things the apostle entreats them, that they would take care of profane swearing, and all vain oaths, since these bring into condemnation, Jas 5:12 and from hence he passes to various exercises of religion; the afflicted he advises to prayer; and those in comfortable circumstances of body and mind to singing of psalms, Jas 5:13, and such that are sick, to send for the elders of the church to pray over them, and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord, whereby not only the sick man would be delivered from his sickness, the Lord raising him up, but even his sins would be declared to be forgiven, Jas 5:14,15. And not only it became the elders to pray for sick persons, but also the saints in general, one for another, and to acknowledge their faults to each other, since the fervent prayer of every righteous man is of great avail with God, Jas 5:16 of which an instance is given in Elias, whose prayer, though a man subject to like passions as other men, against, and for rain, was very successful, Jas 5:17,18. And Christians should not only be concerned for the health of each other's bodies, but also for the good of their souls; wherefore, whenever it is observed that any are straying from the path of truth, methods should be taken to restore them, and turn them from the error of their ways; and whoever is the happy instrument of such a restoration is the means of saving a soul from death, and hiding a multitude of sins, Jas 5:19,20.