James 2:6
New International Version
But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?

New Living Translation
But you dishonor the poor! Isn’t it the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?

English Standard Version
But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?

Berean Standard Bible
But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?

Berean Literal Bible
But you have dishonored the poor. Are not the rich oppressing you and they dragging you into court?

King James Bible
But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

New King James Version
But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?

New American Standard Bible
But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?

NASB 1995
But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?

NASB 1977
But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?

Legacy Standard Bible
But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and they themselves drag you into court?

Amplified Bible
But you [in contrast] have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress and exploit you, and personally drag you into the courts of law?

Christian Standard Bible
Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Yet you dishonored that poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?

American Standard Version
But ye have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you, and themselves drag you before the judgment-seats?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But you have despised the poor. Behold, do not the rich have dominion over you and drag you to court?

Contemporary English Version
You mistreat the poor. But isn't it the rich who boss you around and drag you off to court?

Douay-Rheims Bible
But you have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you by might? and do not they draw you before the judgment seats?

English Revised Version
But ye have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you, and themselves drag you before the judgment-seats?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Yet, you show no respect to poor people. Don't rich people oppress you and drag you into court?

Good News Translation
But you dishonor the poor! Who are the ones who oppress you and drag you before the judges? The rich!

International Standard Version
But you have humiliated the man who is poor. Are not rich people the ones who oppress you and drag you into court?

Literal Standard Version
But you dishonored the poor one. Do the rich not oppress you and themselves draw you to judgment-seats?

Majority Standard Bible
But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?

New American Bible
But you dishonored the poor person. Are not the rich oppressing you? And do they themselves not haul you off to court?

NET Bible
But you have dishonored the poor! Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts?

New Revised Standard Version
But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court?

New Heart English Bible
But you have dishonored the poor person. Do not the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?

Webster's Bible Translation
But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment-seats?

Weymouth New Testament
But *you* have put dishonour upon the poor man. Yet is it not the rich who grind you down? Are not they the very people who drag you into the Law courts? --

World English Bible
But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you and personally drag you before the courts?

Young's Literal Translation
and ye did dishonour the poor one; do not the rich oppress you and themselves draw you to judgment-seats;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
A Warning against Favoritism
5Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him? 6But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court? 7Are they not the ones who blaspheme the noble name by which you have been called?…

Cross References
Proverbs 18:23
The poor man pleads for mercy, but the rich man answers harshly.

Proverbs 22:7
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

Isaiah 3:14
The LORD brings this charge against the elders and leaders of His people: "You have devoured the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses.

Acts 8:3
But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.

Acts 16:19
When the girl's owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities in the marketplace.

1 Corinthians 11:22
Don't you have your own homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What can I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? No, I will not!


Treasury of Scripture

But you have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

ye.

James 2:3
And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:

Psalm 14:6
Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.

Proverbs 14:31
He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.

Do.

James 5:4
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

Job 20:19
Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

Psalm 10:2,8,10,14
The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined…

and.

James 5:6
Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

1 Kings 21:11-13
And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it was written in the letters which she had sent unto them…

Acts 4:1-3,26-28
And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, …

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Court Courts Despised Dishonored Dishonour Drag Dragging Draw Force Grind Insulted Judgment Ones Oppress Personally Poor Rich Rulers Seats Wealth
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Court Courts Despised Dishonored Dishonour Drag Dragging Draw Force Grind Insulted Judgment Ones Oppress Personally Poor Rich Rulers Seats Wealth
James 2
1. Do not regard the rich and despise the poor brothers;
13. rather we are to be loving and merciful;
14. and not to boast of faith without deeds;
17. because faith without deeds is useless;
19. as is the faith of the demons;
21. however, Abraham displayed both faith and actions;
25. as did Rahab.














(6) But ye have despised the poor.--Better, ye dishonoured the poor man--i.e., when, as already mentioned (James 2:2-3), you exalted the rich unto the "good place" of your synagogue. Thus whom God had called and chosen, you refused. "It is unworthy," observes Calvin on this passage, "to cast down those whom God lifts up, and to treat them shamefully whom He vouchsafes to honour. But God honoureth the poor; therefore whoever he is that rejects them perverts the ordinance of God."

Do not rich men oppress you?--Or, lord it over you as a class; not assuredly that this can be said of each wealthy individual. It is the rich man, of the earth earthy, trusting in his riches (comp. Matthew 10:24), who makes them a power for evil and not for good. Here is presented the other side of the argument, used on behalf of the poor, viz., observe first how God regards them (James 2:5), and next, judge their adversaries by their own behaviour.

Draw you before the judgment seats?--Better, Do they not drag you into courts of justice? "Hale" you, as the old English word has it. Summum jus summa injuria--extreme of right is extreme of wrong--a legal maxim oft exemplified. The purse-proud litigious man is the hardest to deal with, and the one who specially will grind the faces of the poor. No body of laws could on the whole be more equitable than the Roman, but their administration in the provinces was frequently in venal hands; and besides, the large fees demanded by the juris-consulti--"the learned in the law"--quite barred the way of the poorer suitors, such as, for the most part, were the Christians to whom this Letter was written.

Verse 6. - You have dishonored by your treatment the poor man, whom God chose; while those rich men to whom ye pay such honor are just the very persons who

(1) oppress you and

(2) blaspheme God and Christ. Poor... rich. In the Old Testament we occasionally find the term "poor" parallel to "righteous" (Amos 2:6; Amos 5:12); and "rich" to "wicked" (Isaiah 53:9). St. James's use here is somewhat similar (see on James 1:9, etc.). "Christiani multi ex pauperibus erant: pauci ex divitibus" (Bengel). The "rich men" here alluded to are evidently such as was the Apostle Paul before his conversion.

(1) They dragged the poor Christians before the judgment-seat (ἕλκουσιν ὑμᾶς εἰς κριτήρια). So Saul, "haling (σύρων) men and women, committed them to prison" (Acts 8:3). . . .

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
But
δὲ (de)
Conjunction
Strong's 1161: A primary particle; but, and, etc.

you
ὑμεῖς (hymeis)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Nominative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

have dishonored
ἠτιμάσατε (ētimasate)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 818: To disgrace, treat disgracefully, dishonor, insult; I despise. From atimos; to render infamous, i.e. contemn or maltreat.

the
τὸν (ton)
Article - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

poor.
πτωχόν (ptōchon)
Adjective - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 4434: Poor, destitute, spiritually poor, either in a good sense (humble devout persons) or bad.

[Is it] not
οὐχ (ouch)
Adverb
Strong's 3756: No, not. Also ouk, and ouch a primary word; the absolute negative adverb; no or not.

the
οἱ (hoi)
Article - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

rich
πλούσιοι (plousioi)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 4145: Rich, abounding in, wealthy; subst: a rich man. From ploutos; wealthy; figuratively, abounding with.

who oppress
καταδυναστεύουσιν (katadynasteuousin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 2616: To overpower, quell, treat harshly. From kata and a derivative of dunastes; to exercise dominion against, i.e. Oppress.

you
ὑμῶν (hymōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

drag
ἕλκουσιν (helkousin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 1670: To drag, draw, pull, persuade, unsheathe. Or helko hel'-ko; probably akin to haireomai; to drag.

you
ὑμᾶς (hymas)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

into
εἰς (eis)
Preposition
Strong's 1519: A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.

court?
κριτήρια (kritēria)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 2922: Neuter of a presumed derivative of krites; a rule of judging, i.e. a tribunal.


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NT Letters: James 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor man (Ja Jas. Jam)
James 2:5
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