Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary James 5:3

"Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days." — James 5:3 (ASV)

An obvious form of wealth was “gold and silver,” and this is said to have become “corroded.” Since gold and silver do not rust or even corrode, James must refer to tarnished metal, the tarnish indicating how long the hoarded wealth had lain idle. He warns the rich, “Their corrosion will testify against you.” It witnessed to the greed and selfishness of these wicked men, who had far more than they could ever use, while their workers were deprived of their wages. The idea that the corrosion will eat the flesh of the rich “like fire” is a graphic way of declaring that their greed will result in their own destruction, as if the corrosion that ate their riches actually will eat their very flesh.

James’s statement that the rich had “hoarded wealth in the last days” shows that he had the future judgment in mind. The NT regards the whole period between Christ’s first and second comings as the last time or “last days” (cf. Hebrews 1:1–2). In comparison with the preparatory days of the OT, this is the last period before Christ comes to set up his kingdom and to judge all people. It was even in the last hour, as it were, before Christ comes to judge, that the rich “hoarded wealth.”