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Read the Bible

Simplified Cowboy Version

James 5:2

Your money will rot and moths will eat your best clothes.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Moth;   Rich, the;   Riches;   Wicked (People);   Thompson Chain Reference - Insects;   Moths;   The Topic Concordance - Wealth;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Condemnation;   Garments;   Moth, the;   Riches;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Garments;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Justice;   Lending;   Mission;   Wealth;   Work;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Dress;   James, the General Epistle of;   Moth;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Insects;   James, the Letter;   Rust;   Violence;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Moth;   Wealth;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Animals;   James ;   James Epistle of;   Metaphor;   Wealth;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Moth,;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Garments;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Dress;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Arment;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - James, Epistle of;   Moth;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for January 26;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Your wealth has rotted and your clothes are moth-eaten.
King James Version (1611)
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments motheaten:
King James Version
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
English Standard Version
Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
New American Standard Bible
Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten.
New Century Version
Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have been eaten by moths.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten.
Berean Standard Bible
Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes.
Contemporary English Version
Your treasures have already rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.
Complete Jewish Bible
Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten;
Darby Translation
Your wealth is become rotten, and your garments moth-eaten.
Easy-to-Read Version
Your riches will rot and be worth nothing. Your clothes will be eaten by moths.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Your riches are corrupt, and your garments are moth eaten.
George Lamsa Translation
Your riches are destroyed and rotted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Good News Translation
Your riches have rotted away, and your clothes have been eaten by moths.
Lexham English Bible
Your wealth has rotted, and your clothing has become moth-eaten.
Literal Translation
Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth-eaten.
Amplified Bible
Your wealth has rotted and is ruined and your [fine] clothes have become moth-eaten.
American Standard Version
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Bible in Basic English
Your wealth is unclean and insects have made holes in your clothing.
Hebrew Names Version
Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.
International Standard Version
Your riches are rotten, your clothes have been eaten by moths,Job 1:13:28; Matthew 6:20; James 2:2;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
Your riches are corrupt and stink, and your vestments are eaten of the moth,
Murdock Translation
For your wealth is spoiled and putrid; and your garments are moth-eaten:
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Your riches is corrupt, your garmentes are motheaten:
English Revised Version
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
World English Bible
Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Weymouth's New Testament
Your treasures have rotted, and your piles of clothing are moth-eaten;
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Youre richessis ben rotun, and youre clothis ben etun of mouytis.
Update Bible Version
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Webster's Bible Translation
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
New English Translation
Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten.
New King James Version
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
New Living Translation
Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags.
New Life Bible
Your riches are worth nothing. Your fine clothes are full of moth holes.
New Revised Standard
Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Your wealth, hath rotted, and, your garments, have become, moth-eaten, -
Douay-Rheims Bible
Your riches are corrupted: and your garments are motheaten.
Revised Standard Version
Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Youre ryches is corrupte youre garmentes are motheaten.
Young's Literal Translation
your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth-eaten;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Youre riches is corrupte, youre garmetes are motheaten.
Mace New Testament (1729)
your wealth is wasted, your wardrobe is devour'd by the worm,

Contextual Overview

1Take a deep seat all you who are rich. You think you've got it easy, but there's a mess of trouble headed your way. 2Your money will rot and moths will eat your best clothes. 3Even your gold and silver has corroded with rust and it will be this rust that will testify against what you've done with your money. That rust is gonna spread across you like a burning range fire. You have hoarded your treasure and it has nailed you to the stake. 4You haven't even paid the cowboys who gathered your pastures or the good, hard-working folks who put up your hay. They've spoke words against you to the Lord and the Lord is listening. 5You're full of pleasure and plenty, but all this is just like grain you've been feeding yourself for the slaughter to come. 6You've thrown the weight of your money around and it has crushed those who were living right and working hard. 7So be patient cowboys. It's just like a rancher who patiently waits on the spring and fall rains that grow the grass his cows eat. In his patience, he watches his herd grow fat and hearty. 8Park your horse under a strong cedar and have courage as you wait on the Lord to come ridin' back . . . and he ain't far off now. 9Don't moan and complain about what others do and you won't be judged; and the Judge is standing at the gate. 10If you want to see what patience and riding the hard trail looks like, all you have to do is peek in at those cowboys who are often called prophets.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Your riches: Jeremiah 17:11, Matthew 6:19, Matthew 6:20, Luke 12:33, 1 Peter 1:4

your garments: James 2:2, Job 13:28, Psalms 39:11, Isaiah 50:9, Isaiah 51:8, Hosea 5:12

Reciprocal: Exodus 16:20 - bred worms Judges 14:12 - change 2 Kings 5:5 - ten changes Job 27:16 - prepare raiment Proverbs 23:5 - riches Ecclesiastes 5:8 - regardeth Jeremiah 25:34 - Howl Jeremiah 48:36 - the riches Zechariah 5:4 - and it shall remain James 4:9 - afflicted 1 Peter 1:7 - that

Cross-References

Matthew 19:4
"Don't you remember," he replied, "that the Boss made man and woman and
Mark 10:6
From the beginning, God made cowboys and cowgirls.
Acts 17:26
He started this world with one cowboy. It was through this cowboy that every ranch and every cowpoke who ever pushed a cow came to be. God decided the boundaries and how good the grass would be on each of them. He determined long ago when each would rise and fall.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Your riches are corrupted,.... Either through disuse of them; and so the phrase is expressive of their tenaciousness, withholding that from themselves and others which is meet, and which is keeping riches for the owners thereof, to their hurt; or these are corrupted, and are corruptible things, fading and perishing, and will stand in no stead in the day of wrath, and therefore it is great weakness to put any trust and confidence in them:

and your garments are moth eaten; being neither wore by themselves, nor put upon the backs of others, as they should, but laid up in wardrobes, or in chests and coffers, and so became the repast of moths, and now good for nothing.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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 Luke 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 Matthew 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. Of course, such property would be liable to be moth-eaten; and the idea here is, that they had amassed a great amount of this kind of property which was useless to them, and which they kept until it became destroyed.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse James 5:2. Your 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.


 
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