James 5:3
What does James 5:3 mean?
A plain-English look at James 5:3 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What James 5:3 means
Even durable metals—gold and silver—are pictured as corroded. Their corrosion becomes evidence for the prosecution, testifying to misplaced trust and unjust gain. James intensifies the warning: the very wealth that seemed to secure life will become a kind of fire, consuming rather than protecting. By saying they have hoarded “in the last days,” he exposes the folly of stockpiling when God’s final assessment is near. The issue is not prudent provision but selfish accumulation without regard for God or neighbor. The verse calls readers to reckon with eternity: riches either serve righteousness now or stand up in court against their owners on the day that truly matters.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Your 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.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Your gold and your silver are wasted and their waste will be a witness against you, burning into your flesh. You have put by your store in the last days.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862your gold and silver have rotted, and the rust of them for a testimony shall be to you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye made treasure in the last days!
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Your gold and silver is cankered: and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Your gold and silver is eaten away, and their canker shall be for a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have heaped up treasure in [the] last days.
Context
Verse 3 continues the courtroom imagery from verse 2, turning possessions into witnesses against their owners. It also introduces an eschatological horizon—“the last days”—which frames the entire section’s urgency. This prepares the way for verse 4’s concrete injustice (withheld wages) and verse 5’s self‑indulgent living. The escalating images of rot, rust, and fire drive toward the moral climax: exploitation of workers and violence against the righteous in verses 4–6, after which James will pivot to exhort suffering believers to patience.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Revelation 20:15
And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
- Jeremiah 19:9
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their life, shall distress them.
- James 5:7
Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and latter rain.
- Genesis 49:1
And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days.
- Revelation 17:16
And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire.
- Deuteronomy 32:33
Their wine is the poison of serpents, And the cruel venom of asps.
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