Verse Lens · Context pointer
James 5:2 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 2. 2Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
This verse portrays accumulated riches and garments as already spoiled and moth-eaten.
Read It With
- James 5:1–6
Read James 5:2 with 5:1–6. This verse portrays accumulated riches and garments as already spoiled and moth-eaten. The complete unit establishes this movement: Exploitative rich people are told to weep because hoarded wealth testifies against them: withheld workers' wages cry to the Lord of hosts, luxury has fattened hearts for judgment, and the righteous have been condemned and killed without effective resistance.
Why It Needs Context
This verse portrays accumulated riches and garments as already spoiled and moth-eaten. Its contribution depends on James 5:1–6; isolated teaching would detach the line from the letter's complete movement.
Read James 5:1–6 together
Why these verses belong together: Ruined stores, hoarding, wage theft, laborers' cries, luxury, and deadly legal power define the prophetic indictment.
Verse 1. 1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Verse 2. 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
Verse 3. 3 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.
Verse 4. 4 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.
Verse 5. 5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
Verse 6. 6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read James 5:1–6 — Hoarding, Withheld Wages, Luxury, and Condemnation Face JudgmentSources 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 5:1–6, 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, 5:1–6
Open the James Greek text file ↗