James 4:2

Jas 4:2-3. Ye lust — Επιθυμειτε, ye covet, or eagerly desire; and have not — What you desire; you are, some way or other, hindered from attaining that of which you are so greedy; ye kill — In your heart; for he that hateth his brother is a murderer. Or he speaks of the actual murders which the carnal Jews, called zealots, committed of the heathen, and even those of their own nation who opposed them. Accordingly, he says, ye kill, Και ζηλουτε, and are zealous, thereby showing, evidently, that the persons to whom he spake were zealots. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not — What ye so eagerly desire; because ye ask not — And no marvel; for a man full of evil desire, of malice, envy, hatred, cannot pray. Since, as appears by this, the persons to whom the apostle is speaking failed of their purpose, because they did not pray to God, it shows, says Macknight, “that some of their purposes, at least, were laudable, and might have been accomplished with the blessing of God. Now this will not apply to the Judaizing teachers in the church, who strongly desired to subject the converted Gentiles to the law of Moses. As little will it apply to those who coveted riches. The apostle’s declaration agrees only to such of the unconverted Jews as endeavoured to bring the heathen to the knowledge and worship of the true God. So far their attempt was commendable, because, by converting the Gentiles to Judaism, they prepared them for receiving the gospel; and if for this they had asked the blessing of God sincerely, they might have been successful in their purpose.” Ye ask, &c. — But if ye do ask, ye receive not, because ye ask amiss — Κακως αιτεισθε, ye ask wickedly, from sinful motives. Some understand this of the Jews praying for the goods of this life: “But though,” says Macknight, “such a prayer had been allowable, the apostle scarcely would have spoken of it here, as it had no connection with his subject. His meaning, in my opinion, is, that they prayed for success in converting the heathen, not from any regard to the glory of God and the salvation of the heathen, but from a desire to draw money from them whom they converted, to spend on their own lusts.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:2 you scheme and kill: Killing was the extreme, but logical, outcome of their rapacious attitude. Some of James’s readers might have followed the Jewish Zealot movement and engaged in murder to benefit their cause. Hostile attitudes and violent methods do not provide satisfaction—you can’t get what you want by them.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Jas 4:2. Ἐπιθυμεῖτε, ye desire) A kind of Anaphora[47] whereby the sentiment is repeated with increased force. Ye desire, with disposition towards an object; ye kill and envy, with the action and disposition of individuals against individuals; ye fight and war, with the action of many against many.—φονεύετε καὶ ζηλοῦτε, ye kill and envy) Ye kill through hatred and envy. One sentiment is expressed by two words. The same verb occurs, ch. Jas 5:6. He who covets any object, desires that the former possessor may be removed out of the way. He speaks of murderers, as in Jas 4:4 of adulterers. Comp. 1Jn 3:15. Thus, φονεύετε, do ye murder? Psa 62:3 (Septuagint), חְּרָצְחוּ for this Hebrew reading, holding a middle place between the others, is[48] well supported by the Halle reviewers. And the tenor of the whole Epistle of James has a very close resemblance to the whole of this Psalm. See notes at Jas 4:7; Jas 4:12; Jas 4:14; Jas 1:3; Jas 3:10. See also Psa 10:8.—οὐκ ἕχετε δὲ) See App. Crit., Ed. ii., on this passage.[49]—ΔΙᾺ, on account of) This agrees (coheres) with the threefold clause, and ye have not; and ye cannot obtain; but ye have not.—μὴ αἰτεῖσθαι, your not asking) For the lustful, the murderer, and the contentious man, cannot pray.

[47] See Append. on ANAPHORA.

[48] See note on chapter Jas 2:23.

[49] AB Vulg. omit δέ. Rec. Text retains it without any very old authority.—E.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jam_4:2 describes in a lively manner the origin of these external strifes. The stages are ἐπιθυμεῖτε … φονεύετε καὶ ζηλοῦτε … μάχεσθε καὶ πολεμεῖτε; the second succeeds the first because it is without result, and the third the second for the same reason.

ἐπιθυμεῖτε] here in a bad sense referring to τῶν ἡδονῶν, Jam_4:1. It is evident that the object to be thought on is worldly possessions; James does not mention the object, because he only required to express the covetous impulse (de Wette). It is unsatisfactory to think only on the desires of individuals. James rather describes the conduct of the churches to whom he writes; these, discontented with their low position in the world, longed after earthly power to which, as the church of God, they thought they had a claim. This striving made them consider persecution as a reproach; on the contrary, James exhorts them to count it as a joy (chap. Jam_1:2). This also produced among them that respect of persons toward the rich of the world for which James blames them. This was also the source of internal division; the affluent in the church despising the poor instead of imparting to them of their wealth, and only striving after an increase of their riches; whilst the poor grudged the rich their possessions, and accused them of being the children of the world. Thus in these churches occurred the same strife which prevailed among the Jews, and was the source of factions among them.

By καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε] the uselessness of ἐπιθυμεῖν is expressed, and also the motive to φονεύειν καὶ ζηλοῦν is assigned; it is unnecessary here, with Gebser, Hottinger, de Wette, to explain ἔχειν = to receive; it rather means: to have, to possess. The meaning is: from the desire follows not the possession, namely, of what is desired.

φονεύετε καὶ ζηλοῦτε] As here the external action is not yet described, but the internal disposition, φονεύειν cannot here be taken in its literal meaning, as Winer (p. 417 [E. T. 589]), Lange, Bouman think. Many expositors, as Carpzov, Pott, Morus, Augusti, Gebser, Schneckenburger, and others explain it adverbially: even to murder and killing; but the position of the words contradicts this explanation; if the idea ζηλοῦτε was to be strengthened by φονεύετε, it must be placed first. Other expositors, as Erasmus, Calvin, Beza, Piscator, Hornejus, Laurentius, Benson, Schulthess, Hottinger, and others, solve the difficulty by the conjectural reading φθονεῖτε; but this reading has not the slightest support in authorities. Nothing remains, as Wiesinger correctly remarks, than to explain φονεύειν here, with Estius, Calovius, also de Wette (who, however, wavers), according to 1Jn_3:15, of internal hatred,[189] and to justify this word by the boldness of the expression prevailing in this passage; comp. πόλεμοι καὶ μάχαι, στρατεύεσθαι, μοιχοί (more correctly ΜΟΙΧΑΛΊΔΕς), Wiesinger. It is true that then an anti-climax would seem to occur; but this is only in appearance, as in point of fact ΖΗΛΟῦΝ (hostile zeal already ready to break out in word and action) presupposes internal ΦΟΝΕΎΕΙΝ.[190]

καὶ οὐ δύνασθε ἐπιτυχεῖν] namely, that for which you hate and envy. What follows on this are πόλεμοι, therefore James closes with μάχεσθε καὶ πολεμεῖτε, in which likewise the answer to the question πόθεν πόλεμοι, πόθεν μάχαι is contained (Wiesinger). With οὐκ ἔχετε, which does not stand in the same relation to μάχεσθε κ.τ.λ. as καὶ οὐ δύν. ἐπιτυχεῖν does to φον. κ. ζηλ.,[191] James resumes the foregoing ΟὐΚ ἜΧΕΤΕ and Οὐ ΔΎΝΑΣΘΕ ἘΠΙΤΥΧΕῖΝ, in order to assign the reason of this not having, etc.; the reason is ΔΙᾺ ΤῸ ΜῊ ΑἸΤΕῖΣΘΑΙ ὙΜᾶς, thus the want of prayer.[192] That prayer for earthly things is heard, is not an opinion peculiar to James, but a divine promise; in which only this is to be observed, that the prayer must be no ΚΑΚῶς ΑἸΤΕῖΣΘΑΙ; see the following verse.

[189] Stier in his exposition remarks: James means hatred, but he speaks of killing and murdering, namely, in a spiritual sense, in order to designate hatred as an attack on ones neighbour; his translation: ye smite (instead of Luthers: ye hate), is not, however, justified by this.

[190] The explanation of Oecumenius is peculiar, but not to be justified: φονεύειν φησὶ τοὺς τὴν ἑαυτῶν ψυχὴν ἀποκτιννύντας ταῖς τολμηραῖς ταύταις ἐπιχειρήσεσι, διʼ ἃ; καὶ ὁ τρὸς τὴν εὐσέβειαν αὐτοῖς πόλεμος.

[191] Accordingly, not a comma is to be put after πολεμεῖτε, but a full stop; thus Tischendorf and Lachmann. Stier incorrectly explains it: it thus remains at the close as at the beginning, Ye have not.

[192] In this passage the exposition of Lange reaches almost the climax of arbitrariness. He here assumes a fourfold gradation(1) desiring; (2) murdering and envying; (3) fighting and warring; (4) asking and not receiving; and corresponding to these(1) not having; (2) not receiving; (3) an increased not having; (4) an increased not receiving. The first stage denotes Judaism full of chiliastic worldly-mindedness up to the time of the N. T.; the second, the attitude of the Jews toward the Christians; the third, the Jewish war; and the fourth, Judaism after the destruction of Jerusalem.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jas 4:2-3 . ἐπιθυμεῖτε καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε …: It must be confessed that these verses are very difficult to understand; we have, on the one hand, lusting and coveting, murdering and fighting; and, on the other hand, praying. Murdering and fighting are the means used in order to obtain that which is coveted; yet in the same breath it is said that the reason why the coveted things are not obtained is because they are not asked for! Is it intended to be understood that this lust (in the sense, of course, of desiring) and covetousness are not gratified only because they had not been prayed for, or not properly prayed for? This is what the words mean as they stand; but can it ever be justifiable to pray for what is evil? There is something extraordinarily incongruous in the whole passage, which defies explanation if the words are to be taken in their obvious meaning. Only one thing seems clear, and that is a moral condition which is hopelessly chaotic. Carr says that “these two verses are among the examples of poetical form in this Epistle”; perhaps this gives the key to the solution of the problem. It may be that we have in the whole of these Jas 4:1-10 a string of quotations, not very skilfully strung together a kind of “Stromateis” taken from a variety of authorities, in order to make this protest against a disgraceful state of affairs more emphatic and authoritative. φονεύετε : the reading φθονεῖτε cannot be entertained if any regard is to be paid to MS. authority; even if accepted it would not really simplify matters much. ζηλοῦτε : refers rather to persons, ἐπιθυμεῖτε to things.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He reprehendeth them by name, which are not ashamed to go about to make God the minister and helper of their lusts and pleasures, in asking things which either are of themselves unlawful, or being lawful, ask them to wicked purposes and uses.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Ye lust--A different Greek word from that in Jam 4:1. "Ye desire"; literally, "ye set your mind (or heart) on" an object.

have not--The lust of desire does not ensure the actual possession. Hence "ye kill" (not as Margin, without any old authority, "envy") to ensure possession. Not probably in the case of professing Christians of that day in a literal sense, but "kill and envy" (as the Greek for "desire to have" should be translated), that is, harass and oppress through envy [DRUSIUS]. Compare Zac 11:5, "slay"; through envy, hate, and desire to get out of your way, and so are "murderers" in God's eyes [ESTIUS]. If literal murder [ALFORD] were meant, I do not think it would occur so early in the series; nor had Christians then as yet reached so open criminality. In the Spirit's application of the passage to all ages, literal killing is included, flowing from the desire to possess so David and Ahab. There is a climax: "Ye desire," the individual lust for an object; "ye kill and envy," the feeling and action of individuals against individuals; "ye fight and war," the action of many against many.

ye have not, because ye ask not--God promises to those who pray, not to those who fight. The petition of the lustful, murderous, and contentious is not recognized by God as prayer. If ye prayed, there would be no "wars and fightings." Thus this last clause is an answer to the question, Jam 4:1, "Whence come wars and fightings?"

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. Ye lust, and have not] Ye are ever covetous, and ever poor.

Ye kill, and, desire to have] Ye are constantly engaged in insurrections and predatory wars, and never gain any advantage.

Ye have not, because ye ask not.] Ye get no especial blessing from God as your fathers did, because ye do not pray. Worldly good is your god; ye leave no stone unturned in order to get it; and as ye ask nothing from God but to consume it upon your evil desires and propensities, your prayers are not heard.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2 Ye lust, or covet, and have not. He seems to intimate that the soul of man is insatiable, when he indulges wicked lusts; and truly it is so; for he who suffers his sinful propensities to rule uncontrolled, will know no end to his lust. Were even the world given to him, he would wish other worlds to be created for him. It thus happens, that men seek torments which exceed the cruelty of all executioners. For that saying of Horace is true:

The tyrants of Sicily found no torment greater than envy.

Some copies have φονεύετε, “ye kill;” but I doubt not but that we ought to read, φθονεῖτε, “ye envy,” as I have rendered it; for the verb, to kill, does in no way suit the context. Ye fight: he does not mean those wars and fightings, which men engage in with drawn swords, but the violent contentions which prevailed among them. They derived no benefit from contentions of this kind, for he affirms that they received the punishment of their own wickedness. God, indeed, whom they owned not as the author of blessings, justly disappointed them. For when they contended in ways so unlawful, they sought to be enriched through the favor of Satan rather than through the favor of God. One by fraud, another by violence, one by calumnies, and all by some evil or wicked arts, strove for happiness. They then sought to be happy, but not through God. It was therefore no wonder that they were frustrated in their efforts, since no success can be expected except through the blessings of God alone.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(2, 3) Ye lust, and have not . . .—Better thus: Ye desire, and have not; ye kill, and envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and make war; ye have not, because ye ask not; ye ask and receive not, because ye ask that ye may spend it on your lusts. It is interesting to notice the sharp crisp sentences, recollecting at the same time that St. James himself fell a victim to the passions he thus assails, probably at the hands of a zealot mob. The marginal note to the second of the above paragraphs gives envy as an alternative reading for “kill”: but this is an error. “Ye kill and play the zealot” would be still nearer the original: for, as with Jedburgh justice in the old Border wars, hanging preceded the trial, so with these factions in Jerusalem death went first, almost before the desire to deal it. Lust, envy, strife, and murder:—like the tale of human passion in all ages, the dreadful end draws on. It is written in every national epic; its elements abound in the life of each individual: the slaughter in Etzel’s halls overshadows the first lines of the Nibelungen-lied; the curse of Medea hangs like a gathering cloud around Jason and his Argonauts. Is it objected (Jas_4:3) that prayer is made but not answered? The reply is obvious; Ye ask not in the true sense; when ye do ask ye receive not, because God is too loving, even in His anger. Nevertheless, remember, He gave the Israelites “their desire, and sent leanness withal into their soul” (Psa_106:15). “I,” said He by Ezekiel (Eze_14:4), “will answer him that cometh to Me, according to his idols.” What greater curse could fall than an eternity of avarice to the miser, of pollution to the sensual, of murder to the violent? Many a man of quiet Christian life will thank God by-and-by, when he knows even as he is known (1Co_13:12), that not a few of his prayers were unanswered, or at least that they were not granted in the way which he had desired. Safety is only to be found in our Lord’s own manner of petition, “Not my will, but Thine be done” (Luk_22:42). Alas! in shameful contrast to this we read of many an evil-hearted prayer offered up to the Lord our Righteousness; invocations of saints for help in unholy deeds; of angels, for acts rather befitting devils of the pit; and can hardly have the conscience to reproach the heathen for supplicating their gods in no worse a manner for no better cause.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. Ye lust and have not …] The genesis of evil is traced somewhat in the same way as in ch. Jas_1:15. The germ is found in desire for what we have not, as e. g. in the sins of David (2Sa_11:1) and Ahab (1Ki_21:2-4). That desire becomes the master-passion of a man’s soul, and hurries him on to crimes from which he would, at first, have shrunk.

ye kill, and desire to have …] The order strikes us as inverted, putting the last and deadliest sin at the beginning. The marginal alternative of “envy” would doubtless give an easier sense, but this cannot possibly be the meaning of the Greek word as it stands, and comes from a conjectural reading, suggested, without any MS. authority, by Erasmus and Beza. If we remember, however, the state of Jewish society, the bands of robber-outlaws of whom Barabbas was a type (Mar_15:7; Joh_18:39), the “four thousand men that were murderers” of Act_21:38, the bands of Zealots and Sicarii who were prominent in the tumults that preceded the final war with Rome, it will not seem so startling that St James should emphasise his warning by beginning with the words “Ye murder.” In such a state of society, murder is often the first thing that a man thinks of as a means to gratify his desires, not, as with us, a last resource when other means have failed. Comp. the picture of a like social condition in which “men make haste to shed blood” in Pro_1:16. There was, perhaps, a grim truth in the picture which St James draws. It was after the deed was done that the murderers began to quarrel over the division of the spoil, and found themselves as unsatisfied as before, still not able to obtain that on which they had set their hearts, and so plunging into fresh quarrels, ending as they began, in bloodshed. There seems, at first, something almost incredible in the thought, that the believers to whom St James wrote could be guilty of such crimes, but Jewish society was at that time rife with atrocities of like nature, and men, nominally disciples of Christ, might then, as in later times, sink to its level. See note on next verse.

ye have not, because ye ask not] This then was the secret of the restless cravings and the ever-returning disappointments. They had never once made their wants the subject of a true and earnest prayer. Here again we note the fundamental unity of teaching in St James and St Paul. Comp. Php_4:6. Prayer is with each of them the condition of content or joy.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye lust, and have not,.... The apostle proceeds to show the unsuccessfulness of many in their desires and pursuits after worldly things; some might be like the sluggard, whose soul desireth all good things, and yet he has nothing, Pro 13:4 because he does not make use of any means, even of such as are proper and necessary, and ought to be used:

ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; some, instead of kill, which seems not so agreeable, read envy; and then the sense is, they envy at the good and happiness of others, and covet after another's property, but cannot enjoy it; all such envy and covetousness are fruitless, as well as sinful:

ye fight and war, yet ye have not; go to law one with another about each other's property; or rather, make a great stir and hustle to get the things of the world; rise early, and sit up late; strive who should get most, and quarrel about what is gotten, and seek to get all advantages of one another; and yet still have not, what at least is desired and strove for:

because ye ask not; of God, whose blessing only makes rich: instead of all this worldly stir and bustle, and these strivings and quarrellings with one another, it would be much more advisable, and, in the issue, be found to turn to more account, to pray to God for a blessing on your endeavours; and to ask of him the good and necessary things of life, in submission to his will, and with thankfulness for what he has bestowed.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

Ver. 2. Ye lust and have not] viz. To the satisfying of your lusts; for that is an endless piece of work. Lust still cries Give, give; and is ever sick of a spiritual dropsy; the barren womb, the horseleech’s daughter, the grave, is nothing to this gulf, to this curse of unsatisfiableness.

Because ye ask not] He must be of a sedate spirit that prays to purpose. How shall we think God will hear us when we hardly hear ourselves? Married couples must agree, that their prayers be not hindered, 1Pe 3:7. There is no sowing in a storm; no taking medicine in a hot fit, as said before.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye lust, and have not - That is, you wish to have something which you do not now possess, and to which you have no just claim, and this prompts to the effort to obtain it by force. You desire extension of territory, fame, booty, the means of luxurious indulgence, or of magnificence and grandeur, and this leads to contest and bloodshed. These are the causes of wars on the large scale among nations and of the contentions and strifes of individuals. The general reason is, that others have that which we have not, and which we desire to have; and not content with endeavoring to obtain it, if we can, in a peaceful and honest manner, and not willing to content ourselves without its possession, we resolve to secure it by force. Socrates is reported by Plato to have said on the day of his death, “nothing else but the body and its desires cause wars, seditions, and contests of every kind; for all wars arise through the possession of wealth.”

Phaedo of Plato, by Taylor, London, 1793, p. 158. The system of wars in general, therefore, has been a system of great robberies, no more honest or honorable than the purposes of the foot-pad, and more dignified only because it involves greater skill and talent. It has been said that “to kill one man makes a murderer, to kill many makes a hero.” So it may be said, that to steal a horse, or to rob a house, makes a man a thief or burglar; to fire a dwelling subjects him to the punishment of arson; but to plunder kingdoms and provinces, and to cause cities, towns, and hamlets to be wrapped in flames, makes an illustrious conqueror, and gives a title to what is deemed a bright page in history. The one enrolls the name among felons, and consigns the perpetrator to the dungeon or the gibbet; the other, accompanied with no more justice, and with the same spirit, sends the name down to future times as immortal. Yet in the two the all-discerning eye of God may see no difference except in the magnitude of the crime, and in the extent of the injury which has been inflicted. In his way, and according to the measure of his ability, the felon who ends his life in a dungeon, or on the gibbet, is as worthy of grateful and honored remembrance as the conqueror triumphing in the spoils of desolated empires.

Ye kill - Margin, or “envy.” The marginal reading “envy” has been introduced from some doubt as to the correct reading of the text, whether it should be φονεύτε phoneute, “ye kill,” or φθονεῖτε phthoneite, “ye envy.” The latter reading has been adopted by Erasmus, Schmidius, Luther, Beza, and some others, though merely from conjecture. There is no authority from the manuscripts for the change. The correct reading undoubtedly is, ye kill. This expression is probably to be taken in the sense of having a murderous disposition, or fostering a brutal and murderous spirit. It is not exactly that they killed or committed murder previous to “desiring to have,” but that they had such a covetous desire of the possessions of others as to produce a murderous and bloody temper. The spirit of murder was at the bottom of the whole; or there was such a desire of the possessions of others as to lead to the commission of this crime. Of what aggressive wars which have ever existed is not this true?

Desire to have - That is, what is in the possession of others.

And cannot obtain - By any fair and honest means; by purchase or negotiation: and this leads to bloody conquest. All wars might have been avoided if men had been content with what they had, or could rightfully obtain, and had not desired to have what was in the possession of others, which they could not obtain by honest and honorable means. Every war might have been avoided by fair and honorable negociation.

Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not - Notwithstanding you engage in contentions and strifes, you do not obtain what you seek after. If you sought that from God which you truly need, you would obtain it, for he would bestow upon you all that is really necessary. But you seek it by contention and strife, and you have no security of obtaining it. He who seeks to gain anything by war seeks it in an unjust manner, and cannot depend on the divine help and blessing. The true way of obtaining anything which we really need is to seek it from God by prayer, and then to make use of just and fair means of obtaining it, by industry and honesty, and by a due regard for the rights of others. Thus sought, we shall obtain it if it would be for our good; if it is withheld, it will be because it is best for us that it should not be ours. In all the wars which have been waged on the earth, whether for the settlement of disputed questions, for the adjustment of boundaries, for the vindication of violated rights, or for the permanent extension of empire, how rare has it been that the object which prompted to the war has been secured! The course of events has shown that indisposed as men are to do justice, there is much more probability of obtaining the object by patient negotiation than there is by going to war.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

You covet, and have not. Though God has promised that whosoever asks shall receive, (Matthew vii. 8.) yet no wonder you receive not, because you ask amiss, by asking such temporal things as would be prejudicial to your soul, or because you ask not with humility, devotion, and perseverance. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Ye lust; passionately and greedily desire.

And have not; either soon lose, or rather cannot get, what ye so lust after.

Ye kill; some copies have it, ye envy, and many suppose that to be the better reading, as agreeing with the context, and with Jam 3:14; envy being the cause of strife there, and joined with emulation, or a desire of having, here. We read it according to other copies, ye kill, which, if he speaketh of wars in a proper sense, Jam 4:1, was, no doubt, the effect of them; and if he speak only of strife and contentions, yet they might proceed so far, that the death of some (though not intended) might be the consequent of them, and occasioned by them. Or, he may mean their murderous desires, killing men in their hearts, wishing for and gaping after their death, that they might gain by it; and this agrees with what he speaks of the frustration of their greedy desires, none being more frequently disappointed of their hopes than they that hope to be gainers by other men’s deaths.

And disire to have; or, emulate, i.e. ambitiously affect to have what ye see others have, grieving that they should have more than you.

And cannot obtain; viz; that which ye envy others’ having.

Ye fight and war: you wrangle and quarrel with your neighbours for what they have, that ye may get it for yourselves.

Yet ye have not; ye are still needy, though still craving; your lusts are infinite and insatiable in themselves, and no way helpful to you.

Because ye ask not; viz. of God by prayer, who hath promised to give to them that ask, Mat 7:7, not to them that war and fight. Instead of humble seeking to God for what ye want, ye would extort it by force or fraud from one another.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Ye lust—Ye desire, crave. The objects of most of the verbs in the passage are to be supplied, the apostle leaving our minds to conceive how varied they are.

Have not—In spite of your craving and violent efforts to obtain. They desired wealth, but poverty was the order of the day. They desired domination, but were enslaved by the Romans. They desired emancipation, but every bloody effort led to a bloodier destruction.

Kill— In predatory assaults and political insurrections.

Desire to have—It is a great puzzle with even such commentators as Huther and Alford to tell why St. James should commit such an anticlimax as to place so feeble a term as desire after kill. Alford discusses four solutions of previous commentators, rejecting them all, and gives a fifth little better than the four. The true solution is very simple. The three verbs, kill, desire, cannot obtain, are to be taken in close connexion: Ye kill and desire to have, (namely, the avails of your killing,) and cannot obtain, (those avails;) so that your bloodshed is bootless. You obtain neither wealth, nor emancipation, nor domination.

Ask not—They were monotheists, hereditary covenant people of God, went through rituals, and yet their prayer was no prayer. For, as the next verse shows, they were lustful ejaculations.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ver. 2gives us an insight into the terrible difficulties with which the apostles had to contend. Those to whom St. James was writing were guilty of lust, which actually led to murder. So the charge in 1Pe_4:15 evidently presupposes the possibility of a professing Christiansuffering as a murderer or thief. Ye kill. The marginal rendering envy" supplies a remarkable instance of a false reading once widely adopted, although resting simply on conjecture. There is no variation in the manuscripts or ancient versions. All alike have foneuete. But, owing to the startling character of the expression in an address to Christians, Erasmus suggested that perhaps fqoneite, "ye envy," was the original reading, and actually inserted it in the second edition of his Greek Testament (1519). In his third edition (1522) he wisely returned to the true reading, although, strangely enough, he retained the false one, invidetis," in his Latin version, whence it passed into that of Beza and others. The Greek fqoneite appears, however, in a few later editions, e.g. three editions published at Basle, 1524 (Bebelius), 1546 (Herwagius), and 1553 (Beyling), in that of Henry Stephens, 1576; and even so late as 1705 is found in an edition of Oritius. In England the reading obtained a wide currency, being actually adopted in all the versions in general use previous to that of 1611, viz. those of Tyndale, Coverdale, Taverner, the Bishops Bible, and the Geneva Version. The Authorized Version relegated it to the margin, from which it has been happily excluded by the Revisers, and thus, it is to be hoped, it has finally disappeared. Ye kill, and desire to have. The combination is certainly strange. Dean Scott sees in the terms a possible allusion to "the well-known politico-religious party of the zealots," and suggests the rendering, ye play the murderers and zealots." It is, perhaps, more probable that zhloute simply refers to covetousness; cf. the use of the word (although with a better meaning) in 1Co_12:31 1Co_14:1, 1Co_14:39.

Vers. 2, 3.

Ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it on your pleasures.

Prayer is not to be selfish, or for the satisfaction of corrupt appetites; and where the spirit of prayer is absent there is no promise to prayer. "Incredible as it might seem that men plundering and murdering, as the previous verses represent them, should have been in any sense men who prayed, the history of Christendom presents but too many instances of like anomalies. Cornish wreckers going from church to their accursed work; Italian brigands propitiating their patron saint before attacking a company of travelers; slave-traders, such as John Newton once was, recording piously God"s blessing on their traffic of the year; these may serve to show how soon conscience may be seared, and its warning voice come to give but an uncertain sound (Plumptre).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye kill - In your heart, for "he that hateth his brother is a murderer." Ye fight and war - That is, furiously strive and contend. Ye ask not - And no marvel; for a man full of evil desire, of envy or hatred, cannot pray.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The Jews, at the writing of this epistle to them, did vehemently lust after liberty, and freedom from the Roman yoke, and for dominion and government over other nations; believing that their Messiah was to be a temporal prince, who should enable them to lord it over the Heathen world: "Now, says our apostle, though you lust for liberty and dominion, yet you have it not: and though, in an eager pursuit after these things, ye kill and slay, yet you do but lose your blood and labour, for ye cannot obtain what you thus inordinately seek, and irregularly covet; you should go to God in prayer for what you desire: but if at any time you do pray, it is not in a right manner, with a right intention and for a right end. It is to consume it upon your lusts; namely, that having the liberty you desire, you may possess the good things of this world you lust after, and may lord it over the Heathen world."

Learn hence, that we pray amiss, when our aims and ends are not right in prayer.

Learn, 2. That then our aims and ends are not right in a prayer, when we ask blessings for the use and encouragement of our lusts.

Learn, 3. That prayers so framed are usually successless; what we ask amiss we are sure to miss, if the Almighty has any kindness for us. In prayer we must consider three things, the object, the manner, and the end: We must not only guard our affections, but secure our intentions; for prayers that want a good aim, do also want a good issue; Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. Ye lust, and have not. This inordinate desire unsatisfied leads to murder, or to hatred and envy, which are murder in embryo. Even then not obtaining they fight and war in order to satisfy their greed. Still they are not satisfied. They should have humbly gone to God with their reasonable requests, but the lustful cannot truly pray.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

2 and 3. These two verses are among the examples of poetical form in this epistle: ζηλοῦτε is an advance on ἐπιθυμεῖτε as οὐ δύνασθε ἐπιτυχεῖν is an advance on οὐκ ἔχετε.

2. ἐπιθυμεῖτε, καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε. The zealot’s aims are disappointed; his means, murder, perverted zeal, quarrels and contentions, lead to nothing. With οὐκ ἔχετε the argument is resumed and expanded by an explanation. Mere desire (ἐπιθυμία) without prayer achieves nothing. There is a kind of asking (αἰτεῖτε) which is not true prayer because its object is perverted. For effectiveness of prayer the desire must be rightly directed, otherwise granted prayer will be no blessing. There is such a thing as “to know the anguish of the granted prayer.”

φονεύετε καὶ ζηλοῦτε, equivalent to a single term. The ζῆλος involved the φόνος.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. V. 2 explains in detail the connection between ἡδοναί and πόλεμοι καὶ μάχαι. Ungratified desire leads to φόνος; zeal for pleasure unable to reach its end, to μάχη and πόλεμος.

οὐκ ἔχετε διά] BAKL minn vgfu.

καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε διά] אR minn ff vgam boh syrutr.

οὐκ ἔχετε δὲ διά] minn. So Textus Receptus.

The short reading is probably original.

Under the reading adopted, the last clause, οὐκ ἔχετε διὰ τὸ μὴ αἰτεῖσθαι ὑμᾶς, belongs with v. 3 (so WH.). R. Stephen’s verse-division, which connects v. 2 c with the preceding instead of the following, and the punctuation of the A.V. are due to the Textus Receptus.

ἐπιθυμεῖτε, καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε· φονεύετε. καὶ ζηλοῦτε, καὶ οὐ δύνασθε ἐπιτυχεῖν· μάχεσθε καὶ πολεμεῖτε.

This punctuation alone (so WH. mg. and many commentators) preserves the perfect parallelism between the two series of verbs, which is fatally marred by the usual punctuation (φονεύετε καὶ ζηλοῦτε, καὶ οὐ δύνασθε ἐπιτυχεῖν, so Tisch. WH. etc.). The abruptness is then not greater than in 2:17, 5:6, 5:13 f. For the asyndeton, cf. 2:22, 24. These passages mark the extreme of the abruptness which in various forms is a quality of James’s style. The usual punctuation is made additionally unacceptable by the impossible anticlimax φονεύετε καὶ ζηλοῦτε (cf. Plato, Menex. 242 A).

ἐπιθυμεῖτε, not a new idea but necessarily suggested by ἡδονῶν (v. 1). Pleasure and desire are correlative; see on v. 1.

φονεύετε, “kill,” “murder.” No weaker sense is possible, and none is here necessary, for James is not describing the condition of any special community, but is analysing the result of choosing pleasure instead of God. The final issue of the false choice is flagrant crime. ἡδονή implies ἐπιθυμία; ἐπιθυμία is often unsatisfied; in such a case its outcome, if unrestrained, is to cause the murder of the man who stands in its way.ἐπιθυμεῖτε, ἔχετε, φονεύετε are practically equivalent to a conditional sentence, in which ἐπιθυμεῖτε καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε forms the protasis, φονεύετε the apodosis; cf. 3:13, 5:13 f., Bultmann, pp. 14 f. In the use of the second person plural the writer is taking the readers as representative of the world of men in general.

On the “universal,” or “gnomic,” present, see Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek, i, § 190; Winer, § 40. 2. a; on asyndetic sentences of the nature of a condition, cf. Buttmann, § 139. 28; Winer, § 60. 4. c.

The same idea that murder is the horrible outcome to be expected from actually existing conditions, unless their natural tendency is somehow checked, is found in Didache 3:2 μὴ γίνου ὀργίλος· ὁδηγεῖ γὰρ ἡ ὀργὴ πρὸς τὸν φόνον· μηδὲ· ζηλωτὴς μηδὲ ἐριστικὸς μηδὲ θυμικός· ἐκ γὰρ τούτων ἁπάντων φόνοι γεννῶνται; cf. also Clem. Rom 4:7, Rom 4:9, quoted below, Test. XII Patr. Sim. 3:3 πάντοτε [ὁ- φθόνος] ὑποβάλλει ἀνελεῖν τὸν φθονούμενον. It must not be forgotten that to cause a death indirectly is often called murder, and that even downright murders have not been unknown in otherwise respectable communities. Cf. Act 9:23, Act 20:3, Act 23:12 ff., Jas 5:6 ἐφονεύσατε, 1Pe 4:15 φονεύς, Ecclus. 34:22.

καὶ ζηλοῦτε, καὶ οὐ δύνασθε ἐπιτυχεῖν· μάχεσθε καὶ πολεμεῖτε.

Having established the connection between ἡδονή and φόνος, the writer presents another chain, still hypothetical and general, but showing that the origin of the prevailing state of πόλεμοι καὶ μάχαι (v. 1) is ζῆλος, which when it cannot attain its coveted prize regularly leads to fighting and strife.

James, writing to no one community, but to the whole Christian world, is speaking of general tendencies, not of the sins of any particular local group. Hence his strong language has no personal sting.

The underlying principle is not the same as that of Mat 5:21 f., although there is obvious resemblance. There, as in Mat 5:28, the point is that it is the inner passion of the heart which God considers, not merely the carrying out of an angry thought in murder. Here in James the wickedness and dangerousness of the end sought, viz. pleasure, is exposed by showing to what an awful issue, if uninhibited, it surely leads.

1Jn 3:15 πᾶς ὁ μισῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἀνθρωποκτόνος ἐστίν comes nearer, but is still different.

To the mistaken idea that James is here giving a description of the particular communities which he addressed is due the conjecture φθονεῖτε for φονεύετε, which was printed in the second edition of Erasmus (1519), was supported by Calvin, translated by Luther (ihr hasset), and has been adopted by many other commentators, both older and more recent. Various other instances of the textual corruption, φόνος for φθόνος, can, indeed, be adduced (see Mayor3, p. 136); but there is no manuscript evidence for the reading here. The conjecture is unnecessary, and it obliterates the careful parallelism of the two series.

Interpreters who have been unwilling to emend the text, and yet have felt bound to see in φονεύετε an actual description of the Christian community addressed, have been driven to various expedients. The more usual methods have been either to reduce the meaning of φονεύετε to “hate,” or else to assume an hendiadys, by which “murder and envy” becomes “murderously envy” (Schneckenburger: ad necem usque invidetis). Both methods are linguistically impossible.

καὶ ζηλοῦτε. καί connects the two series.

ζηλοῦτε, “hotly desire to possess,” “covet,” cf. Ecclus. 51:18, Wisd. 1:12, 1Co 12:31, 1Co 12:14:1, 39, Gal 4:17 f., Demosth. Ol. ii, 15 ὁ μὲν δόξης ἐπιθυμεῖ καὶ τοῦτο ἐζήλωκε. The meaning is different from that of ζῆλος in 3:14.

ζῆλος and ζηλόω start with the fundamental meaning of “hot emotion.” For the peculiar Hebraistic and Biblical meaning “zeal,” see note on Jas 3:14. In secular use the meanings are developed on two sides, desire to surpass (“emulation,” “rivalry”) and desire to possess (“envy,” etc.). In either sense the words may refer, according to circumstances, to either a good or an evil desire. See Trench, Synonyms, § xxvi.

In our verse ἐπιτυχεῖν shows that the desire is for possession; but ζηλοῦτε may then mean either “envy” (the possessor) or “covet” (his possessions). “Covet” (so R.V.; A.V. “desire to have”), as being the more general idea and a better parallel to ἐπιθυμεῖτε, is to be preferred.

The English word “jealousy” is derived from ζῆλος through French jalousie, Latin zelus, but in most of its meanings “jealousy” corresponds rather to φθόνος, the “begrudging” to another, indicating primarily not the desire to possess, but the unwillingness that another should have.

μάχεσθε καὶ πολεμεῖτε, i. e. against those who possess what you wish to take from them. The connection of either barren envy or ungratified covetousness with strife is so natural that it hardly needs to be illustrated; but cf. Clem. Rom. 3-6 (where the Biblical and secular meanings are not distinguished), with Lightfoot’s note on 3:2, Philo, De decal. 28; Iren. iv, 18:3.

This passage is made more intelligible by passages from Greek and Roman writers, which show that not only the connection of pleasure and desire, but that of desire, conflict, and war, was a commonplace of popular moralising in the Hellenistic age. See Zeller, Die Philosophie der Griechen4, iii, 1, pp. 221-225.

Thus Philo, De decal. 28, M. pp. 204 f.: “Last of all he forbids desire (ἐπιθυμεῖν), knowing desire (τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν) to be productive of revolution and addicted to plots. For all the passions of the soul (τὰ ψυχῆς πάθη) are bad, exciting it and agitating it unnaturally, and destroying its health, but worst of all is desire. … The evils of which the love of money or of a woman or of glory or of any other of those things that produce pleasure is the cause—are they small and ordinary? Is it not because of this passion that relationships are broken, and thus natural good-will changed into desperate enmity? that great and populous countries are desolated by domestic dissensions? and land and sea filled with novel disasters by naval battles and land campaigns? For the wars famous in tragedy, which Greeks and barbarians have fought with one another and among themselves, have all flowed from one source: desire (ἐπιθυμία) either for money or glory or pleasure. Over these things the human race goes mad.”

Ibid. 32, M. p. 208 πέμπτον δὲ [i. e. the fifth commandment of the second table] τὸ ἀνεῖργον τὴν τῶν ἀδικημάτων πηγήν, ἐπιθυμίαν, ἀφʼ ἡς ῥέουσιν αἱ παρανομώταται πράξεις, ἴδιαι καὶ κοιναί, μικραὶ καὶ μεγάλαι, ἱεραὶ καὶ βέβηλοι, περί τε σώματα καὶ ψυχὰς καὶ τὰ λεγόμενα ἐκτός· διαφεύγει γὰρ οὐδέν, ὡς καὶ πρότερον ἐλέχθη, τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν, ἀλλʼ οἷα φλὸξ ἐν ὕλῃ νέμεται δαπανῶσα πάντα καὶ φθείρουσα.

Philo, De Josepho, 11, M. p. 50; De posteritate Cain. i, 34, M. pp. 247 f.; De migratione Abr. 12; Lucian, Cynic. 15, πάντα γὰρ τὰ κακὰ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐκ τῆς τούτων ἐπιθυμίας φύονται, καὶ στάσεις καὶ πόλεμοι καὶ ἐπιβουλαὶ καὶ σφαγαί. ταυτὶ πάντα πηγὴν ἔχει τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν τοῦ πλείονος; Cicero, De finibus, i, 13 ex cupiditatibus odia, dissidia, discordiae, seditiones, bella nascuntur; Seneca, De ira, ii, 35 ista quae appetitis quia exigua sunt nec possunt ad alterum nisi alteri erepta transferri, eadem affectantibus pugnam et jurgia excitant. Cf. Plato, Phœdo, p. 66 C καὶ γὰρ πολέμους καὶ στάσεις καὶ μάχας οὐδὲν ἄλλο παρέχει ἢ τὸ σῶμα καὶ αἱ τούτου ἐπιθυμίαι.

See note on 1:14, and cf. Wendland and Kern, Beiträge zur Geschichte der griech. Philosophie und Religion, pp. 36-37; J. Drummond, Philo Judæus, ii, pp. 302-306.

In contrast to pleasure stands God. So Philo, Leg. all. ii, 23, M. p. 83, says that it is impossible to master pleasure except by complete submission to God. 4 Macc. 5:22, 6:35 represent, in more secular fashion, reason (λογισμός) and sound principles (φιλοσοφία) as able to control pleasure and desire; but Test. XII Patr. Benj. 6 shows true Jewish character in the sharp contrast which it draws: “[The good man] delighteth not in pleasure … for the Lord is his portion.” This section of the Testament of Benjamin is full of parallels to James.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye lust. See on desire, 1Pe 1:12; Mr 4:19.

Desire to have [ζηλουτε] . Rev., covet, and are jealous, in margin. See on ch. Jas 3:14.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.