James announces God’s coming judgment on wealthy oppressors. Their hoarded wealth, withheld wages, self-indulgence, and violence against the righteous all stand as testimony against them before the Lord.

James moves from warning arrogant merchants in 4:13–17 to declaring a prophetic woe against wealthy oppressors. He calls them to weep because severe miseries are coming upon them under God’s judgment.

The problem is not wealth in itself. James condemns wealth that is hoarded, gained unjustly, and used selfishly while others are oppressed. Their riches are pictured as rotting, their garments as moth-eaten, and even their gold and silver as corroded. The imagery is vivid and ironic: the very things they trusted in will prove useless and will serve as evidence against them. They have stored up treasure “in the last days,” at the very time when accountability before God is most urgent.

James then identifies a specific injustice. They have withheld wages from the laborers who harvested their fields. This is not a vague complaint about social imbalance, but a direct charge of fraud. The workers were owed pay, and it was kept back. In keeping with the Old Testament’s moral standard, this is a serious sin before God. James says the unpaid wages cry out, and the cries of the workers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts—the sovereign Lord over heaven’s armies, who hears the oppressed and has power to judge and avenge.

The rich have also lived in luxury and self-indulgence. James says they have fattened their hearts in a day of slaughter. The picture is grim: like animals being fattened before butchering, they have given themselves to pleasure while moving toward judgment. Their prosperity is no sign of safety.

Verse 6 says they have condemned and murdered “the righteous person,” who does not resist them. The singular is best understood as representative of righteous sufferers, especially vulnerable people oppressed by the rich, rather than as a reference to one individual only. A connection to Jesus is possible by association, but it is less likely in this immediate context.

The most likely view is that James is addressing unbelieving wealthy landowners outside the church, chiefly to assure oppressed believers that God will judge them. This fits the entirely denunciatory tone, the absence of a direct call to repentance, and the transition in 5:7 to comfort the brothers and sisters and call them to patience. Even so, some caution is needed, since James often addresses situations affecting the churches, and some wealthy people may have been connected with the assemblies.

In the flow of James, this passage serves both as a solemn warning and as comfort for the oppressed. It teaches that God judges wealth morally by how it is acquired and how it is used. Hoarded abundance, withheld wages, self-indulgent luxury, and violent oppression bring divine judgment. God hears the cries of the defrauded, and he will not let such injustice stand.