OET interlinear YAC (JAM) 5:3

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / pastforfuture

ὁ χρυσὸς ὑμῶν καὶ ὁ ἄργυρος κατίωται

the gold ˱of˲_you_all and the silver /has_been/_corroded

James is using the past tense to refer to something that will happen in the future. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use the future tense in your translation. Alternate translation: “Your gold and silver are going to be tarnished”

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / activepassive

ὁ χρυσὸς ὑμῶν καὶ ὁ ἄργυρος κατίωται

the gold ˱of˲_you_all and the silver /has_been/_corroded

If your language does not use this passive form, you can express this with an active form. Alternate translation: “Your gold and silver have tarnished” or “Your gold and silver are going to tarnish”

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

ὁ χρυσὸς ὑμῶν καὶ ὁ ἄργυρος κατίωται

the gold ˱of˲_you_all and the silver /has_been/_corroded

Depending on the meaning of the statement “you have stored up in the last days” (See: the first note to that statement below), James may be saying that the gold and silver of the rich have become worthless. If it would be helpful to your readers, you could indicate that explicitly, as UST does.

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / simile

ὁ χρυσὸς ὑμῶν καὶ ὁ ἄργυρος κατίωται

the gold ˱of˲_you_all and the silver /has_been/_corroded

If you decide to indicate explicitly that James is saying that the gold and silver of the rich have become worthless, you could do that by expressing his past-for-future statement as a simile, as UST does.

καὶ ὁ ἰὸς αὐτῶν εἰς μαρτύριον ὑμῖν ἔσται

and the and the rust ˱of˲_them for /a/_testimony ˱to˲_you_all will_be

If you created a verse bridge and you also combined the statement “your gold and silver have been tarnished” with the two clauses in 5:2, it would be helpful to begin a new sentence here and to use a general expression that would apply to everything that these rich people own. Alternate translation: “The ruins of your possessions will be for a testimony against you” or “The ruins of your possessions will testify against you”

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

ὁ ἰὸς αὐτῶν εἰς μαρτύριον ὑμῖν ἔσται

the the the rust ˱of˲_them for /a/_testimony ˱to˲_you_all will_be

James is speaking of this rust as if it would be presented as evidence in a case against the rich people. Alternate translation: “the rust on your gold and silver will show that you did the wrong thing”

Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

ὁ ἰὸς αὐτῶν εἰς μαρτύριον ὑμῖν ἔσται

the the the rust ˱of˲_them for /a/_testimony ˱to˲_you_all will_be

If it would be helpful to your readers, you could state explicitly what wrong thing these rich people have done, as evidenced by this rust. Alternate translation: “the rust of your gold and silver will show that you have done the wrong thing by devoting yourselves to accumulating wealth rather than to helping other people”

Note 7 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy

φάγεται τὰς σάρκας ὑμῶν ὡς πῦρ

/will_be/_consuming the fleshes ˱of˲_you_all like fire

James is using the word flesh to mean the human body, by association with the way the body is made of flesh. Alternate translation: “it will eat your bodies”

Note 8 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

φάγεται τὰς σάρκας ὑμῶν ὡς πῦρ

/will_be/_consuming the fleshes ˱of˲_you_all like fire

James is saying that this rust will corrode and consume the owners of the gold and silver that it is also corroding. Alternate translation: “it will consume you” or “it will ruin you”

Note 9 topic: figures-of-speech / simile

ὡς πῦρ

like fire

It may be helpful to express the meaning of this simile more fully. Alternate translation: “just as fire consumes everything that it burns” or “just as fire ruins everything that it burns”

Note 10 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

ἐθησαυρίσατε ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις

˱you_all˲_stored_up in /the/_last days

If it would be helpful to your readers, you could state explicitly what these rich people have stored up and why it was wrong for them to do that. This could mean: (1) they have accumulated riches in the last days, that is, in the time just before Jesus returns. That would be wrong because once Jesus returns, earthly riches will no longer have any value. Instead of trying to get more and more wealth, these people should have been helping others with what they had. Alternate translation: “Instead of helping others, you have wrongly stored up wealth at a time when earthly riches are about to lose all of their value” (2) by their wrongdoing, such as he describes in 5:4–6, these rich people have stored up punishment for themselves. Alternate translation: “God is just about to punish wrongdoers, and you have given God many reasons to punish you”

Note 11 topic: grammar-connect-logic-result

ἐθησαυρίσατε ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις

˱you_all˲_stored_up in /the/_last days

If the first interpretation of this statement in the note just above is correct, then James is giving the reason for the results that he describes in the previous verse and in the earlier part of this verse. If you created a verse bridge as described in the first note to 5:2, you could put this reason before the result by placing this statement first in that bridge.

Note 12 topic: figures-of-speech / idiom

ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις

/the/_last days

This is an idiom. Alternate translation: “the time just before Jesus returns”