Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary James 5:2

"Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten." — James 5:2 (ASV)

The first crime charged against the wicked rich is that of hoarding various forms of wealth. They have so much wealth stored up that it “has rotted”; their clothes also are moth eaten. Wealth in those days consisted of both money and such commodities as grain, oil, and costly garments. Evidence that costly garments were stored as wealth and used as payment for services rendered occurs in such passages as 2 Kings 5:5, 22; Matthew 6:19. Thus what rotted were the commodities and what had been invaded by moths were the stored garments. There is no reason to take these happenings as figurative or as predictive of the future. The tragic fact was that the rich had hoarded so much food and clothing that it was going to waste. Their crime was uncontrolled greed that resulted in oppression of the poor (v.4).