Charles Ellicott Commentary James 5:5

"Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter." — James 5:5 (ASV)

You have lived in pleasure. And what an indictment this is, brought against them by the Apostle: You revelled upon earth, and wantoned; you nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. The pleasure and wantonness in which the rich had lived, the selfishness with which they had cared for their own hearts, in a time of death for others—indeed, preparation of the same for themselves: this is the aggravated wrong, and the inexpiable shame. In the Received Text for the scripture quoted above, they are accused of having “nourished their hearts as in a day of slaughter,” the cries of the victims thus seeming an addition to their own delights; but the charge against them is heavy enough without this insertion.

As they had dealt with others, so the vengeance of God dealt with them. The Passover called together the richest Jews from all parts of the earth, and they themselves were the victims in their last sacrifice. No words can overdraw the fury of the Roman onset, under Titus, when the Temple floors ran with blood, and the roofs raged in fire until all was utter desolation.