James 5:2
in James 5Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
KJV
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
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This verse in James 5
Commentary
9 notes on this verseYour riches are corrupted - Σεσηπε· Are putrefied. The term πλουτος, riches, is to be taken here, not for gold, silver, or precious stones, (for these could not putrefy), but for the produce of the fields and flocks, the different stores of grain, wine, and oil, which they had laid up in their granaries, and the various changes of raiment which they had amassed in their wardrobes.
This site's exposition
ye rich men, weep and howl
on James 5:1-3
The register is the prophets' own: go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl, addressed past the churches to the oppressors themselves, as Amos and Isaiah spoke over Israel's heads to her exploiters. The indictment reads their vaults as evidence, riches corrupted, garments motheaten, gold and silver cankered, the three ancient forms of wealth all perishing, and the rust shall be a witness against you and eat your flesh, hoarded metal turned prosecutor and executioner. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days is the bitter irony: they stockpiled for a future that is the judgment.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Your riches are corrupt: and your garments are eaten by moths. Your gold and silver is rusted: and their rust shall be for a testimony to you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. You have stored to yourselves wrath in the last days. "Your …
Riches cannot harm a good person, because he spends them kindly. Likewise they cannot help an evil person as long as he keeps them avariciously or wastes them in dissipation.
The Medieval Church1 voice
The rotting of wealth, he says, the eating of garments by moths, and the rust of silver and gold will testify against you, exposing you for having given nothing. Therefore in the last days, that is, at the coming of the Lord, your wealth will …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
You have not a single instance of misery only coming upon you, but miseries. The ruin of your church and nation is at hand; and there will come a day of wrath, when riches shall not profit men, but all the wicked shall be destroyed. " (2.) The very apprehension of such miseries as were coming upon them is enough to make them weep and howl.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
Your riches are corrupted,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
corrupted--about to be destroyed through God's curse on your oppression, whereby your riches are accumulated (Jas 5:4). CALVIN thinks the sense is, Your riches perish without being of any use either to others or even to yourselves, for instance, your garments which are moth-eaten in your chests. garments . . . moth-eaten--referring to Mt 6:19, 20.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Your riches are corrupted - The word here rendered “corrupted” (σήπω sēpō) does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. It means, to cause to rot, to corrupt, to destroy. The reference here is to their hoarded treasures; and the idea is, that they had accumulated more than they needed for their own use; and that, instead of distributing them to do good to others, or employing them in any useful way, they kept them until they rotted or spoiled. It is to be remembered, that a considerable part of the treasures which a man in the East would lay up, consisted of perishable materials, as garments, grain, oil, etc. Such articles of property were often stored up, expecting that they would furnish a supply for many years, in case of the prevalence of famine or wars. Compare Luk 12:18-19. A suitable provision for the time to come cannot be forbidden; but the reference here is to cases in which great quantities had been laid up, perhaps while the poor were suffering, and which were kept until they became worthless. Your garments are moth-eaten - The same idea substantially is expressed here in another form. As the fashions in the East did not change as they do with us, wealth consisted much in the garments that were laid up for show or for future use. See the notes at Mat 6:19. Q. Curtius says that when Alexander the Great was going to take Persepolis, the riches of all Asia were gathered there together, which consisted not only of a great abundance of gold and silver, but also of garments, Lib. vi. c. 5. Horace tells us that when Lucullus the Roman was asked if he could lend a hundred garments for the theater, he replied that he had five thousand in his house, of which they were welcome to take part or all. […]
The words behind it
10 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ὁ | ho | The | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| πλοῦτος | ploutos | riches | G4149 → | |
| ὑμῶν | humon | of You | G4771 → | 2973 times |
| σέσηπεν | sesepen | have rotted | G4595 → | |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| τὰ | ta | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἱμάτια | himatia | garments | G2440 → | |
| ὑμῶν | humon | of you | G4771 → | 2973 times |
| σητόβρωτα | setobrota | moth-eaten | G4598 → | |
| γέγονεν· | gegonen | have become; | G1096 → | 667 times |
ὁThe
hoG3588 →19766 times
πλοῦτοςriches
ploutosG4149 →
ὑμῶνof You
humonG4771 →2973 times
σέσηπενhave rotted
sesepenG4595 →
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
τὰthe
taG3588 →19766 times
ἱμάτιαgarments
himatiaG2440 →
ὑμῶνof you
humonG4771 →2973 times
σητόβρωταmoth-eaten
setobrotaG4598 →
γέγονεν·have become;
gegonenG1096 →667 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Luke 12:33Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
it leads to
- Matthew 19:21
Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
- Acts 4:34–35
There were no needy ones among them, because those who owned lands or houses would sell their property, bring the proceeds from the sales,
- Acts 2:45
Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need.
- Luke 18:22
On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
- Matthew 6:19–21
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
- Matthew 19:21
Through
Isaiah 51:8For the moth will devour them like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool. But My righteousness will last forever, My salvation through all generations.”
it leads to
- Isaiah 51:6
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its people will die like…
- Job 4:19
how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Hosea 5:12
So I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 51:6
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About James

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Caesarius of Arles, SERMONS 35.4; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on James and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on James.
