James 5:11 - Exposition

Behold, we count them happy. ΄ακαρίζειν : only here and Luke 1:48 (comp. James 1:12 , "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation;" Daniel 12:12 , "Blessed is he that waiteth"). Which endure ; rather, which endured , reading ὑπομείναντας , with א , A, B, Syriac, Latt. ( quisustinuerunt ) . Ye have heard of the patience of Job. A book very rarely referred to in the New Testament; only here and in 1 Corinthians 3:19 , where Job 5:13 is quoted. And have seen the end of the Lord . ἴδετε ("see") is found in A, B, L, but εἴδετε of the Received Text has the support of א , B, K, Vulgate ( ridistis ), and is now generally adopted. The "end of the Lord ( τὸ τέλος κυρίου )" cannot possibly be interpreted of the death and resurrection of our Savior. The whole context is against this, and κυρίου would certainly require the article. The Syriac Version rightly interprets the clause, "the end which the Lord wrought for him." It dearly refers to the end which God brought about in the case of Job, whose "latter end the Lord blessed more than his beginning". That the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy, πολύσπλαχνος : here only; never in the LXX , but equivalent to Hebrew דסֶחֶ ברַ ; cf. Psalms 103:8 , (102); Psalms 111:4 , (110), which may have suggested the phrase to St. James. οἰκτίρμων : only here and Luke 6:36 ; several times in the LXX . ὁ κύριος is omitted entirely in K, L, and some manuscripts of the Vulgate; the article is also wanting in B.