James 5:5

Literal Standard Version

you lived in luxury on the earth, and were wanton; you nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter;

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
You have lived luxuriously on the earth and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

King James Version (1611)
Yee haue liued in pleasure on the earth, and bene wanton: ye haue nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter:

King James Version
Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

English Standard Version
You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

New American Standard Bible
You have lived for pleasure on the earth and lived luxuriously; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

New Century Version
Your life on earth was full of rich living and pleasing yourselves with everything you wanted. You made yourselves fat, like an animal ready to be killed.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

Berean Standard Bible
You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.

Contemporary English Version
While here on earth, you have thought only of filling your own stomachs and having a good time. But now you are like fat cattle on their way to be butchered.

Complete Jewish Bible
You have led a life of luxury and self-indulgence here on earth — in a time of slaughter, you have gone on eating to your heart's content.

Darby Translation
Ye have lived luxuriously on the earth and indulged yourselves; ye have nourished your hearts [as] in a day of slaughter;

Easy-to-Read Version
Your life on earth was full of rich living. You pleased yourselves with everything you wanted. You made yourselves fat, like an animal ready for the day of slaughter.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Ye haue liued in pleasure on the earth, and in wantonnes. Ye haue nourished your heartes, as in a day of slaughter.

George Lamsa Translation
For you have had your luxuries on earth and have been greedy; you have fed your bodies as for the day of slaughter.

Good News Translation
Your life here on earth has been full of luxury and pleasure. You have made yourselves fat for the day of slaughter.

Lexham English Bible
You have lived self-indulgently on the earth and have lived luxuriously. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.

Literal Translation
You lived luxuriously on the earth, and lived for self-pleasure; you nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter;

Amplified Bible
On the earth you have lived luxuriously and abandoned yourselves to soft living and led a life of wanton pleasure [self-indulgence, self-gratification]; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

American Standard Version
Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.

Bible in Basic English
You have been living delicately on earth and have taken your pleasure; you have made your hearts fat for a day of destruction.

Hebrew Names Version
You have lived delicately on the eretz, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

International Standard Version
You have lived in luxury and pleasure on earth. You have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.Job 1:21:13; Amos 6:1,4; Luke 16:19,25; 1 Timothy 5:6;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
For you have lived daintily on the earth, and have been wanton, and have nourished your bodies, as for the day of slaughter.

Murdock Translation
For ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and revelled, and feasted your bodies as in a day of slaughter.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Ye haue liued in pleasure on the earth, and ben wanton: Ye haue nourisshed your heartes, as in a day of slaughter.

English Revised Version
Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.

World English Bible
You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Ye have lived delicately on earth, and been wanton; ye have cherished your hearts, as in a day of sacrifice.

Weymouth's New Testament
Here on earth you have lived self-indulgent and profligate lives. You have stupefied yourselves with gross feeding; but a day of slaughter has come.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Ye han ete on the erthe, and in youre letcheries ye han nurschid youre hertis. In the dai of sleyng ye brouyten,

Update Bible Version
You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.

Webster's Bible Translation
Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

New English Translation
You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

New King James Version
You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as [fn] in a day of slaughter.

New Living Translation
You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter.

New Life Bible
You have had everything while you lived on the earth and have enjoyed its fun. You have made your hearts fat and are ready to be killed as an animal is killed.

New Revised Standard
You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Ye have luxuriated upon the land, and run riot, ye have pampered your hearts in a day of slaughter;

Douay-Rheims Bible
You have feasted upon earth: and in riotousness you have nourished your hearts, in the day of slaughter.

Revised Standard Version
You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Ye have lived in pleasure on the erth and in wantannes. Ye have norysshed youre hertes as in a daye of slaughter.

Young's Literal Translation
ye did live in luxury upon the earth, and were wanton; ye did nourish your hearts, as in a day of slaughter;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye haue liued in pleasure on the earth and in wantannes. Ye haue norysshed youre hertes, as in a daye of slaughter.

Mace New Testament (1729)
you have liv'd on the earth in voluptuousness and luxury: you have indulg'd your selves as in a day of sacrifice:

Simplified Cowboy Version
You're full of pleasure and plenty, but all this is just like grain you've been feeding yourself for the slaughter to come.

Contextual Overview

¹Go, now, you rich! Weep, howling over your miseries that are coming on [you]; ²your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth-eaten; ³your gold and silver have rotted, and the rust of them will be to you for a testimony, and will eat your flesh as fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days! ⁴Behold, the reward of the workmen cries out, of those who in-gathered your fields, which has been fraudulently kept back by you, and the exclamations of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the LORD of Hosts; ⁵you lived in luxury on the earth, and were wanton; you nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter;⁶you condemned—you murdered the righteous; he does not resist you. ⁷Be patient, then, brothers, until the coming of the LORD; behold, the farmer expects the precious fruit of the earth, being patient for it, until he may receive rain—early and latter; ⁸you also be patient; establish your hearts, because the coming of the LORD has drawn near; ⁹do not murmur against one another, brothers, that you may not be condemned; behold, the Judge has stood before the door. ¹⁰Brothers, [as] an example of the suffering of evil and of patience, take the prophets who spoke in the Name of the LORD;

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

have lived: 1 Samuel 25:6, 1 Samuel 25:36, Job 21:11-15, Psalms 17:14, Psalms 73:7, Ecclesiastes 11:9, Isaiah 5:11, Isaiah 5:12, Isaiah 47:8, Isaiah 56:12, Amos 6:1, Amos 6:4-6, Luke 16:19, Luke 16:25, 1 Timothy 5:6, 2 Timothy 3:4, Jude 1:12, Revelation 18:7

been: Isaiah 3:16, Romans 13:13

as in: Proverbs 7:14, Proverbs 17:1, Isaiah 22:13, Ezekiel 39:17, Revelation 19:17, Revelation 19:18

Reciprocal: Job 36:11 - spend Proverbs 1:32 - and the Proverbs 4:17 - General Ecclesiastes 2:1 - I will Isaiah 32:11 - be troubled Jeremiah 5:28 - waxen Jeremiah 12:3 - the day Luke 12:19 - take 1 Timothy 5:11 - to wax Hebrews 11:25 - the pleasures 2 Peter 2:18 - wantonness

Cross-References

Genesis 3:19
by the sweat of your face you eat bread until your return to the ground, for you have been taken out of it, for dust you [are], and to dust you return."

Genesis 5:7
And Seth lives after his begetting Enos eight hundred and seven years [[or seven hundred and seven years]], and begets sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:8
And all the days of Seth are nine hundred and twelve years, and he dies.

Genesis 5:10
And Enos lives after his begetting Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years [[or seven hundred and fifteen years]], and begets sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:11
And all the days of Enos are nine hundred and five years, and he dies.

Genesis 5:12
And Cainan lives seventy years [[or one hundred and seventy years]], and begets Mahalaleel.

Genesis 5:14
And all the days of Cainan are nine hundred and ten years, and he dies.

Genesis 5:21
And Enoch lives sixty-five years [[or one hundred and sixty-five years]], and begets Methuselah.

Genesis 5:22
And Enoch habitually walks with God after his begetting Methuselah three hundred years [[or two hundred years]], and begets sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:32
And Noah is a son of five hundred years, and Noah begets Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth,.... This is said of other rich men; for all that is here said is not to be understood of the same individuals, but some things of one, and some of another; some made no use of their riches, either for themselves, or others; some did make use of them, and employed the poor, and then would not give them their wages; and others lived a voluptuous and luxurious life, indulged themselves in carnal lusts and pleasures, and gratified the senses by eating, drinking, gaming, and so were dead while they lived. The phrase suggests, that their pleasures were but short lived, but for a season, even while they were on earth; and that hereafter they would not live in pleasure:

and been wanton; through the abundance and plenty of good things, their delicious way of living, and the swing of pleasures which they took; the allusion is to fatted beasts, which being in good pastures, grow fat and wanton:

ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter, when beasts were slain for some extraordinary entertainment, or for the solemn festivals and sacrifices the Jews, when they lived more deliciously than at other times; and then the sense is, that these rich men fared sumptuously every day; every day was a festival with them; they indulged themselves in intemperance; they ate and drank, not merely what was necessary, and satisfying, and cheering to nature, but to excess, and gorged, and filled themselves in an extravagant manner: the Syriac version, instead of "hearts", reads "bodies" and one copy reads, "your flesh": and the last phrase may be rendered, as it is in the same version, "as unto", or "for the day of slaughter"; and so the Arabic version, "ye have nourished your hearts, as fattened for the day of slaughter": like beasts that are fattened in order to be killed, so were they preparing and fitting up by their sins for destruction.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth - One of the things to which the rich are peculiarly addicted. Their wealth is supposed to be of value, because it furnishes them the means of doing it. Compare Luke 12:19; Luke 16:19. The word translated “lived in pleasure, (τρυφάω truphaō) occurs only here in the New Testament. It means, to live delicately, luxuriously, at ease. There is not in the word essentially the idea or vicious indulgence, but that which characterizes those who live for enjoyment. They lived in ease and affluence on the avails of the labors of others; they indulged in what gratified the taste, and pleased the ear and the eye, while those who contributed the means of this were groaning under oppression. A life of mere indolence and ease, of delicacy and luxury, is nowhere countenanced in the Bible; and even where unconnected with oppression and wrong to others, such a mode of living is regarded as inconsistent with the purpose for which God made man, and placed him on the earth. See Luke 12:19-20. Every man has high and solemn duties to perform, and there is enough to be done on earth to give employment to every human being, and to fill up every hour in a profitable and useful way.

And been wanton - This word now probably conveys to most minds a sense which is not in the original. Our English word is now commonly used in the sense of “lewd, lustful, lascivious.” It was, however, formerly used in the sense of “sportive, joyous, gay,” and was applied to anything that was variable or fickle. The Greek word used here (σπαταλάω spatalaō) means, to live luxuriously or voluptuously. Compare the notes at 1 Timothy 5:6, where the word is explained. It does not refer necessarily to gross criminal pleasures, though the kind of living here referred to often leads to such indulgences. There is a close connection between what the apostle says here, and what he refers to in the previous verses - the oppression of others, and the withholding of what is due to those who labor. Such acts of oppression and wrong are commonly resorted to in order to obtain the means of luxurious living, and the gratification of sensual pleasures. In all countries where slavery exists, the things here referred to are found in close connection. The fraud and wrong by which the reward of hard toil is withheld from the slave is connected with indolence and sensual indulgence on the part of the master.

Ye have nourished your hearts - Or, yourselves - the word hearts here being equivalent to themselves. The meaning is, that they appeared to have been fattening themselves, like stall-fed beasts, for the day of slaughter. As cattle are carefully fed, and are fattened with a view to their being slaughtered, so they seemed to have been fattoned for the slaughter that was to come on them - the day of vengeance. Thus many now live. They do no work; they contribute nothing to the good of society; they are mere consumers - fruges, consumere nati; and, like stall-fed cattle, they seem to live only with reference to the day of slaughter, and to the recompense which awaits them after death.

As in a day of slaughter - There has been much variety in the interpretation of this expression. Robinson (lex.) renders it, “like beasts in the day of slaughter, without care or forethought.” Rosenmuller (Morgenland) supposes that it means, as in a festival; referring, as he thinks, to the custom among the ancients of having a feast when a part of the animal was consumed in sacrifice, and the rest was eaten by the worshippers. So Benson. On such occasions, indulgence was given to appetite almost without limit; and the idea then would be, that they had given themselves up to a life of pampered luxury. But probably the more correct idea is, that they had fattened themselves as for the day of destruction; that is, as animals are fattened for slaughter. They lived only to eat and drink, and to enjoy life. But, by such a course, they were as certainly preparing for perdition, as cattle were prepared to be killed by being stall-fed.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse James 5:5. Ye have lived in pleasure — ετρυφησατε. Ye have lived luxuriously; feeding yourselves without fear, pampering the flesh.

And been wanton — εσπαταλησατε. Ye have lived lasciviously. Ye have indulged all your sinful and sensual appetites to the uttermost; and your lives have been scandalous.

Ye have nourished your hearts — εθρεψατε. Ye have fattened your hearts, and have rendered them incapable of feeling, as in a day of slaughter, ημεραα φαγης, a day of sacrifice, where many victims are offered at once, and where the people feast upon the sacrifices; many, no doubt, turning, on that occasion, a holy ordinance into a riotous festival.