Charles Ellicott Commentary James 5:11

"Behold, we call them blessed that endured: ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful." — James 5:11 (ASV)

We count them happy which endure.—Rather read it, we count them blessed which endure; or, as some critics would have it, endured. (See Matthew 5:11 and 1 Peter 2:19.) The heathen philosopher Solon called no one “happy” on earth; but, with the mystery of pain around him, cried sadly, “Look to the end.” And the sated and weary soul of Solomon had no better thought than to praise “the dead which are already dead, more than the living” (Ecclesiastes 4:2). How different the teaching of Saint James, himself taught by the example of the suffering Christ: truly, “he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than” the greatest and the wisest who do not know of its light and peace (Matthew 11:11).

The patience of Job.—The earliest notions current in the world were, doubtless, that on the whole prosperity came to those who lived morally and physically well, while adversity in body or mind followed closely on the wicked and improvident. It is easy to see how these opinions, even among the happier races who had not wandered far from God, gradually hardened into stern rules of judgment, by which each man saw in the chances and calamities of life an immediate effort of an avenging Deity.

This was ages before a pious Asaph (Psalms 73) could reflect on the contradiction of experience in this matter and be troubled at the “prosperity” of the wicked; or before the wise king could notice (Ecclesiastes 7:15; Ecclesiastes 8:14) the just man perishing “in his righteousness,” and the unjust prolonging “his days in wickedness”; “the fishes taken in an evil net,” and “the birds caught in the snare” (Ecclesiastes 9:12).

It was ages earlier still than the presence of that Wiser than Solomon, who spoke of the hapless “eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell”—“Think ye that they were sinners above all?” (Luke 13:4–5).

Job’s friends were so certain of his misdeeds that they would not hear his self-defense; if God tried his endurance, man surely afflicted his patience. We can hear the three in council against him, becoming more zealous as they believe themselves the defenders of God’s justice. (See Job 4–22.) They are shocked at Job’s obstinacy and annoyed into vehement accusation against him because he will “hold fast” to his “integrity.” It is a damning proof to them of his guilt. Not only had he been wicked, but now actually he is impious and rebellious; such conduct is not to be borne. “Is not thy wickedness great?” says Eliphaz (Job 22:5).

You must have—nay, “thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing;” you could not—nay, “thou hast not given water to the weary, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry:” truly thine iniquities are infinite.” Now, we know Job was innocent; God Himself bears witness to it (Job 1:8). And finally the suffering, patient, righteous man was declared to have spoken wisely: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, the contrary.

They—types of a censorious piety—had conceived of God by their own faulty notions of religion and mistakenly believed they could enter into the motives of the Most High. Job for a while had seemed to cloud his own belief with baser attributes, as (Job 16 and following) to a God who causelessly dealt in cruelty and pain; but through such fleeting mistakes he rose at last to the full conviction of His perfect truth and justice. It might be that He gave happiness to those who sought Him; it might be He allowed them misery—as the world would call it; but neither this nor that had a part in the matter at issue.

Earthly blessings “He gives to whom He wills, or leaves to the powers of nature to distribute among those who fulfill its laws”; but “to serve him and love Him is higher and better than any mundane welfare, though it be with wounded feet and bleeding forehead, or an ash-heap and filthy sores” (Froude). This was the faith to which Job attained: higher, “clearer, purer, there is not possible to man.” In such “patience” it would be well for us that we should “possess our souls” (Luke 21:19).

And have seen the end of the Lord.—Better thus, You have heard . . . see also the end of the Lord. The reference is at once past and future: consider, that is, what God accomplished in the end of trial, for the faithful of old, like Job; learn from it how great a deliverance He will also work for you. But “if ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established” (Isaiah 7:9). It is a mistake to understand here any allusion to the death of Christ, as if the Apostle spoke to those who witnessed it.

That the Lord is very pitiful.—Saint James, in the fullness of his gratitude, seems to have coined a word for this single place. “Great-hearted” would be close to its meaning; but originally the bowels were thought to be the seat of the affections, and hence such terms of expression: as also in Genesis 43:30; 1 Kings 3:26; Isaiah 63:15; Lamentations 1:20; Philippians 1:8; 1 John 3:17, and others.

“The Lord” here is Jehovah, under which name the Lord spoke and worked before He was made man. See Bishop Pearson On the Creed, in Article 2, proving the significance of κίριος, or Lord, as the right translation of the Hebrew El, Elohim, Shaddai, Adonai, and Jehovah. And compare Isaiah 40:3 with Matthew 3:1; Malachi 3:1 with Matthew 11:10; and Jeremiah 23:6.