to undergo hardship · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person singular
any
τιςtis
G5100
some or any person or object · indefinite pronoun — nominative singular masculine
among
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
you
ὑμῖνhymîn
G5213
to (with or by) you
afflicted
κακοπαθέωkakopathéō
G2553
to undergo hardship
pray
προσευχέσθω·proseuchesthō
G4336
to pray to God · verb — present middle or passive deponent imperative, 3rd person singular
Is
εὐθυμεῖeuthumei
G2114
to cheer up · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person singular
any
τις;tis
G5100
some or any person or object · indefinite pronoun — nominative singular masculine
merry
εὐθυμέωeuthyméō
G2114
to cheer up
psalms
ψαλλέτω.psalletō
G5567
compare G5597 (ψώχω)) · verb — present active imperative, 3rd person singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
Jonah 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
Ephesians 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Acts 16:24-25 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Hebrews 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save h…
Revelation 5:9-14 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us…
Revelation 19:1-6 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto t…
Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on James 5:12–end
This epistle now drawing to a close, the penman goes off very quickly from one thing to another: hence it is that matters so very different are insisted on in these few verses.
I. The sin of swearing is cautioned against: But above all things, my brethren, swear not, etc., Jam 5:12. Some understand this too restrictedly, as if the meaning were, "Swear not at your persecutors, at those that reproach you and say all manner of evil of you; be not put into a passion by the injuries they do you, so as in your passion to be provoked to swear." This swearing is no doubt forbidden here: and it will not excuse those that are guilty of this sin to say they sear only when they are provoked to it, and b…
afflicted--referring to the "suffering affliction" (Jam 5:10).
let him pray--not "swear" in rash impatience.
merry--joyous in mind.
sing psalms--of praise. Paul and Silas sang psalms even in affliction.
Adam Clarke on James 5:13
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray - The Jews taught that the meaning of the ordinance, Lev 13:45, which required the leper to cry, Unclean! unclean! was, "that thus making known his calamity, the people might be led to offer up prayers to God in his behalf," Sota, page 685, ed. Wagens. They taught also, that when any sickness or affliction entered a family, they should go to the wise men, and implore their prayers. Bava bathra, fol. 116, 1.
In Nedarim, fol. 40, 1, we have this relation: "Rabba, as often as he fell sick, forbade his domestics to mention it for the first day; if he did not then begin to get well, he told his family to go and publish it in the highways, that they who hat…
Is any among you afflicted?.... As the people of God generally are; they are commonly a poor, and an afflicted people; at least there are many among them that are so, and many are their afflictions: those whom Christ loves, as he did Lazarus, are not free from sicknesses and diseases; and these are rather signs of love than arguments against it; and when this is the case of any of the saints, what is to be done?
let him pray; to God that can save him; in the name of Christ; under the influence of the Spirit; believing in the word of promise. Times of afflictions are proper times for prayer; there is then more especially need of it; and God sometimes lays his afflicting hand upon his people,…
The Church Fathers
What should you do when you are in trouble? Call on God. And what should you do when you are happy? Praise him.
Is anyone among you in trouble? etc. He who previously forbade brothers to groan to each other under trials now demonstrates what should be done in contrast. If, he says, any of you is oppressed by sadness, whether an injury received from other men may accidentally occur, or by an incidental fault, or by a domestic loss overwhelming, or by any other reason you are caused grief, in no way at that hour should you murmur amongst yourselves and convene to complain about God's judgments, but rather run to the church, pray to the Lord on bended knees, so that He may send the grace of His consolation, lest the sadness of the world, which works death, swallow you (II Cor. VII). Also, drive away the harmful plague of sadness from your heart by the sweetness of frequent Psalm-singing.
Is anyone among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Prayer go together with affliction, so that for the one who is afflicted, the withdraw from afflictions or temptations may be lighter. Then, when through prayer it has pleased God to remove the things that trouble us, and the soul has reached its state of peace and tranquility, let him sing psalms, so that what is beneficial may be multiplied, and it may delight in spiritual joy. Indeed, joy and gladness are the right state of the mind, according to our great Basil, for hymns or divine praises confer the grace of consolation. Therefore, whoever has not progressed in this way, nor reached such a state, which David also calls holiness: "Sing to the Lord, you His saints," (Ps. 30:4) does great nonsense, singing vainly and empty, as the proverb says.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Music — Jubal was the inventor of musical instruments (Gen. 4:21). The Hebrews were much given to the cultivation of music. Their whole history and literature afford abundant evidence of this. After the…
Afflicted · DUTY TO THE — DUTY TO THE
Affliction, Prayer Under · Exhortation to — Exhortation to
Joy · 2:11;4:7;5:11;9:2,14;13:5;14:7;16:5,6,8,9,11;17:15;19:8;20:5;21:1,6;28:7;30:5,11,12;32:1,2,11;33:21;35:9;36:8;40:16;42:4;43:4;45:15;46:4;51:8,12;53:6;63:5-7,11;64:10;68:3;69:32;70:4;71:23;85:6;89:15,16;97:11,12;100:1,2;104:34;105:3,43;119:1,2,14,16,55,111,162,165;126:5,6;132:16;138:5;149:2,5; — 2:11;4:7;5:11;9:2,14;13:5;14:7;16:5,6,8,9,11;17:15;19:8;20:5;21:1,6;28:7;30:5,11,12;32:1,2,11;33:21;35:9;36:8;40:16;42:4;43:4;45:15;46:4;51:8,12;53:6;63:5-7,11;64:10;68:3;69:32;70:4;71:23;85:6;89:15,16;97:11,12;100:1,2;104:34;105:3,43;119:1,2,14,16,55,111,162,165;126:5,6;132:16;138:5;149:2,5;
Praise · Saints should: Express their joy by — Saints should: Express their joy by
Prayer · Suitable in affliction — Suitable in affliction
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
James 5:12-13
12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
12 Ante omnia vero, fratres mei, Ne juretis, neque per coelum, neque per terram, neque aliud quodvis jusjurandum; sit autem vestrum. Est, est; Non, non: ne in judicium (vel, simulationem) incidatis.
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
13 Afflgitur quis inter vos? oret: hilari est animo? psallat.
12 But above all things. It has been a common vice almost in all ages, to swear lightly and inconsiderately. For so bad is our nature that we do no…
never take an oath: Because the churches were having such severe verbal conflicts (4:1-3, 11-12), James calls upon them to avoid the pitfalls of deceitful oaths by not using any oaths at all (Matt 5:33-37). To swear an oath in the name of the Lord was to call upon him to enforce the oath (Gen 31:53; 1 Kgs 8:31-32). When people swore by heaven or earth they were either feigning reverence while avoiding the use of the divine name, or they were being deceitful with clever verbiage (see Matt 23:16-22). Peter used an oath deceitfully (Matt 26:71-73), but Paul used an oath to confirm his assertions (Rom 1:9; 2 Cor 1:23), which suggests that the prohibition of oaths is not absolute.
