Verse Lens · Context pointer
James 5:18 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 18. 18And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
This verse completes the Elijah example with renewed prayer, rain, and the earth's fruit.
Read It With
- James 5:13–18
Read James 5:18 with 5:13–18. This verse completes the Elijah example with renewed prayer, rain, and the earth's fruit. The complete unit establishes this movement: Every condition is brought before God: sufferers pray, the cheerful praise, the sick call elders for prayer and anointing, the community confesses and prays for healing, and Elijah shows that effective prayer comes from a person sharing ordinary human weakness.
Why It Needs Context
This verse completes the Elijah example with renewed prayer, rain, and the earth's fruit. Its contribution depends on James 5:13–18; isolated teaching would detach the line from the letter's complete movement.
Read James 5:13–18 together
Why these verses belong together: Suffering, joy, sickness, anointing, conditional forgiveness, confession, healing, and Elijah are held in communal prayer.
Verse 13. 13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
Verse 14. 14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
Verse 15. 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Verse 16. 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Verse 17. 17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
Verse 18. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read James 5:13–18 — Suffering, Joy, Sickness, Confession, and Rain Are Brought to PrayerSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: James 5:13–18, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording, clause relationships, and base text for original-language discussion.
Exact location: Faithlife SBLGNT repository, data/sblgnt/text/Jas.txt, 5:13–18
Open the James Greek text file ↗