Stitched straight onto the previous line (‘Again…’). ‘The Lord will judge his people’ also stands at Ps 135:14 — two witnesses fused into one verdict.

For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone; that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.


‘Dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses’ (v. 28) quotes the Deuteronomic evidentiary rule almost verbatim. High verbal volume; the a-fortiori (‘how much worse punishment’) turns the capital-witness statute into the structure of the warning.

At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.


‘A fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries’ (v. 27) closely follows Isa 26:11 LXX (‘fire will devour the adversaries’). The same Isaiah-26 context supplies 10:37 (‘a little while’), so recurrence within the pericope strengthens the link (Hays); note Hebrews tracks the Greek here.

Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don't see; but they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed. Yes, fire will consume your adversaries.


The ‘day of wrath’ devouring fire of Zephaniah feeds the same ‘fierceness of fire’ image. Lower volume than Isa 26:11 and harder to isolate, but the prophetic ‘fire of his jealousy that devours’ is the shared topos commentators cite behind v. 27.

Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh's wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.


The doublet of Deut 17:6, also phrasing the ‘two or three witnesses’ rule. Either Deuteronomic text could be in view; the recurrence of the formula across the law is itself why Hebrews can treat it as settled procedure.

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.


Explicitly flagged in the existing Deut 32:36 note as the alternate locus of ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ Listed in its own right because the wording of Heb 10:30b matches Ps 135:14 as closely as Deut 32:36 — a genuine two-source ambiguity that NA28 margins record.

For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants.


‘The righteous will live by faith’ — Paul's great text (Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11) — here following the Greek, which adds ‘if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.’ It is the hinge into chapter 11: faith defined, then paraded.

For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come. It won’t delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.

For the vision is yet for a time, and it shall shoot forth at the end, and not in vain: though he should tarry, wait for him; for he will surely come, and will not tarry. If he should draw back, my soul has no pleasure in him: but the just shall live by my faith.


‘In a very little while’ (v. 37) appears to be a conflated lead-in: Hebrews prefixes Hab 2:3 with the ‘yet a little while’ of Isa 26:20 LXX (‘hide for a little moment until the indignation is past’). The borrowed phrase, and the article on ‘the coming one,’ make the prophecy point to Christ's coming — a Greek-text move (availability/coherence).

Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.


‘Enoch… was not found, because God translated him’ retells Gen 5:24, following the Greek (‘transferred’) for the Hebrew ‘God took him.’ The chapter's whole method shows here in miniature — faith demonstrated by retelling the old stories. (Abel and Noah, vv. 4 and 7, are likewise drawn from Genesis 4 and 6–9.)

Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.


‘Abel offered… a more excellent sacrifice than Cain’ (v. 4) retells Gen 4:3–10 — the LORD's ‘respect’ for Abel's offering is read as the testimony ‘that he was righteous.’ High thematic coherence; the narrative is reused whole rather than cited (Hays, figural reading).

Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of its fat. Yahweh respected Abel and his offering,


‘Being dead, he still speaks’ (v. 4) hears Gen 4:10, where Abel's blood ‘cries from the ground.’ Recurrence clinches it: the same image returns at 12:24 (‘the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel’), so even this faint allusion earns its place.

Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.”


‘Noah… prepared a ship for the saving of his house’ (v. 7) retells the flood narrative of Gen 6–9. The ‘things not yet seen’ are the warned-of flood; Noah's obedience ‘condemned the world.’ The whole story is reused figurally, not quoted.

Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.


The one formal quotation in the chapter (v. 18). That the promise runs ‘through Isaac’ is what makes the command to sacrifice Isaac the supreme test — and the ground for the inference that God ‘is able to raise up even from the dead.’ The surrounding narrative (the tents, the binding, Jacob worshiping on his staff at Gen 47:31 LXX) is woven in as allusion.

Don't let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your servant. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For your offspring will be named through Isaac.


‘Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out… not knowing where he went’ (v. 8) retells the call of Gen 12:1–4. High verbal volume in the verbs of going out and obeying; the founding act of faith for the whole roll-call.

Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you.”


‘Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac’ (v. 17) retells the Aqedah (Gen 22, here v. 9, the binding). The narrative is reused whole and read past itself — the near-sacrifice becomes a figure of resurrection: ‘figuratively speaking, he received him back from the dead.’

They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood.


‘Sarah herself received power to conceive… past age’ (v. 11) alludes to the promise of Gen 17:19 and its fulfillment at 21:1–2. The thematic point — the impossibility of the birth — is exactly what ‘counted him faithful who had promised’ requires.

God said, “No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.”


The fulfillment paired with the promise of 17:19: Sarah bore Isaac ‘when she was past age.’ Low verbal volume, but high coherence — the late-life birth is the very ground of the ‘as good as dead… stars and sand’ paradox in v. 12.

Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.


‘As many as the stars of the sky’ (v. 12) lifts the star-promise of Gen 15:5. Recurrence is decisive: the paired ‘stars… and sand’ formula returns from Gen 22:17, and the same image already anchored 6:13–14 — the most-repeated promise to Abraham.

Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So will your offspring be.”


‘As innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore’ (v. 12) completes the doubled ‘stars and sand’ formula of Gen 22:17 — the oath sworn at the binding. Already quoted at Heb 6:13–14, so the recurrence test is satisfied across the letter.

that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies.


‘Strangers and pilgrims on the earth… dwelling in tents’ (vv. 9, 13) echoes Abraham's self-description at Gen 23:4, ‘a stranger and a foreigner.’ The pilgrim motif is the interpretive hinge — the patriarchs ‘desire a better country, a heavenly one.’

I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.


‘Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau… concerning things to come’ (v. 20) alludes to the deathbed blessing of Gen 27. Low volume, but the explicit naming of Isaac, Jacob, and Esau pins the source; faith is read as confidence in ‘things to come.’

He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, “Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Yahweh has blessed.”


‘Jacob… worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff’ (v. 21) follows the Greek of Gen 47:31, which reads ‘staff’ (matteh) where the Hebrew has ‘bed’ (mittah) — the same unpointed consonants. Availability again (Hays): the author's Septuagint gave him the staff. The blessing of Joseph's sons (Gen 48) is alluded to in the same breath.

He said, “Swear to me,” and he swore to him. Israel bowed himself on the bed's head.


‘Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph’ (v. 21) retells Gen 48, where the dying patriarch blesses Ephraim and Manasseh. Reused as narrative rather than cited; coheres with the chapter's deathbed-faith pattern (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph all blessing what they will not see).

He blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day,”


‘Joseph… made mention of the departure of the children of Israel; and gave instructions concerning his bones’ (v. 22) closely retells Gen 50:24–25. High verbal volume — ‘departure’ and ‘bones’ both echo the oath; faith as confidence in an exodus Joseph would never see.

Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”


Faith demonstrated not by citation but by retelling — Moses, the Passover, the sea, Jericho, Rahab compressed into a litany of ‘by faith.’ Figural reuse of whole narratives: the Old Testament itself becomes the cloud of witnesses of 12:1.

Moses and the Passover, the blood on the doorposts, the crossing of the Red Sea, the fall of Jericho, and Rahab's welcome of the spies (Exodus 12–14; Joshua 2; 6).


‘Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months… because they saw that he was a beautiful child’ (v. 23) is a near-verbatim retelling of Exod 2:2. High verbal volume — ‘hidden three months’ and the ‘fine/beautiful child’ both carry over.

The woman conceived, and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.


‘Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing… ill treatment with God's people’ (vv. 24–25) interprets Exod 2:11–15 — Moses casting his lot with the oppressed Hebrews. The narrative is reused and theologized (‘the reproach of Christ’).

In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers, and looked at their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers.


‘He kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them’ (v. 28) retells Exod 12 — the blood-token that turns the destroyer aside. High thematic coherence with the letter's blood-and-atonement argument.

The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.


‘They passed through the Red Sea as on dry land… the Egyptians… were swallowed up’ (v. 29) retells Exod 14. The same deliverance/judgment doubling — dry ground for Israel, drowning for Egypt — is reused whole as an act of faith.

The children of Israel went into the middle of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left.


‘The walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been encircled for seven days’ (v. 30) retells Josh 6. The ‘seven days’ detail carries directly from the narrative; the fall comes not by siege-works but by faith.

So the people shouted and the priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight in front of him, and they took the city.


‘Rahab the prostitute, didn't perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies in peace’ (v. 31) retells Josh 2; 6:22–25. Rahab the outsider set among the faithful; her welcome of the spies is read as the faith that spared her.

But Rahab the prostitute, her father's household, and all that she had, Joshua saved alive. She lives in the middle of Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers, whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.


The roll-call accelerates into a blur of unnamed sufferers. The tortured who refused release ‘that they might obtain a better resurrection’ allude to the Maccabean martyrs (2 Macc 7) — Scripture and the example of the faithful read together as one witness. The figural method at full speed.

Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah (Judges); David and Samuel (1–2 Samuel); ‘stopped the mouths of lions’ and ‘quenched fire’ (Daniel 6; 3); and the tortured who looked for ‘a better resurrection’ (2 Maccabees 6–7).


‘Gideon… subdued kingdoms… caused foreign armies to flee’ (vv. 32–34) names the judge whose three hundred routed Midian (Judg 6–8). A representative verse for the Judges cluster (Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah); the deliverers are reused as exemplars of faith, not cited.

Yahweh said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand.”


‘Stopped the mouths of lions’ (v. 33) is a near-verbatim allusion to Dan 6:22, where the angel ‘shut the lions' mouths.’ High verbal volume on the distinctive image — among the clearest links in the unnamed list.

My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.


‘Quenched the power of fire’ (v. 34) alludes to Dan 3:27 — the three in the furnace on whom ‘the fire had no power.’ Paired with the lions of Dan 6 in the same line, the two Daniel deliverances stand side by side.

The satraps, the deputies, and the governors, and the king's counselors, being gathered together, saw these men, that the fire had no power on their bodies.


‘David’ (v. 32), who ‘grew mighty in war’ and ‘caused foreign armies to flee,’ is represented by the defeat of Goliath. Low volume (a name, not a phrase), but David and Samuel are explicitly named, anchoring the Samuel-narratives in the litany.

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.


‘Women received their dead by resurrection’ (v. 35) alludes to the widow of Zarephath, whose son Elijah raised (1 Kings 17:17–24). The plural ‘women’ pairs it with the Shunammite of 2 Kings 4 — two raised sons, one phrase.

Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.


The second ‘woman’ who ‘received her dead’ (v. 35) is the Shunammite, whose son Elisha raised (2 Kings 4:32–37). Together with 1 Kings 17 it justifies the plural and sets up the contrast with those who chose death for ‘a better resurrection.’

Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.


‘Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection’ (v. 35) draws on the Maccabean mother and seven sons (2 Macc 7), who refused release in hope of resurrection. The verbal link is ‘resurrection’/‘raise up… to renewal of life’ — a Second Temple, non-canonical witness read alongside Scripture.

And when he was at the last gasp, he said, You, miscreant, do release us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise up us, who have died for his laws, to an eternal renewal of life.


‘Others were tortured… tried by mocking and scourging’ (vv. 35–36) also recalls the aged Eleazar of 2 Macc 6:18–31, who ‘advanced of his own accord to the instrument of torture.’ Contested and faint — a deuterocanonical example of voluntary martyrdom folded into the litany of the persecuted faithful.

But he, welcoming death with renown rather than life with pollution, advanced of his own accord to the instrument of torture, but first spat forth the flesh,


‘They were sawn apart’ (v. 37) has no canonical referent; the early Jewish-Christian tradition that Isaiah was sawn in two under Manasseh (Martyrdom of Isaiah, alluded to by Justin and the rabbis) is the standard identification. Pseudepigraphal and faint, but the otherwise-unexplained verb ‘sawn’ tips the balance (Hays' availability/satisfaction).

[pseudepigraphal — not in WEB] The Ascension/Martyrdom of Isaiah recounts that Isaiah was sawn in two with a wood-saw at the order of King Manasseh (Mart. Isa. 5:1–14).


‘Has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’ (v. 2) sounds Ps 110:1 a final time — the verse first echoed at 1:3 and quoted at 1:13 now crowns the runner who finished the race.

Yahweh says to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.’


Wisdom's word on a father's discipline, applied to suffering: hardship is not God's absence but his fathering. The closing exhortation then borrows Isaiah's ‘strengthen the weak hands and feeble knees’ (Isa 35:3) and Proverbs' ‘make level paths’ (Prov 4:26).

My son, don’t despise Yahweh’s discipline, neither be weary of his reproof: for whom Yahweh loves, he reproves; even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.

My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loves, he rebukes, and scourges every son whom he receives.


‘What son is there whom his father doesn't discipline?’ (v. 7) restates the father-son discipline axiom of Deut 8:5 — the wilderness theology that hardship is paternal training, not abandonment. Strong thematic coherence (Hays) reinforcing the quoted Prov 3:11–12; the disciplining ‘father’ language is shared verbatim in sense. LXX and Hebrew agree here (‘as a man chastens his son’).

You shall consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Yahweh your God disciplines you.


‘Lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees’ (v. 12) lifts Isaiah's oracle of comfort to the discouraged almost word for word — high verbal volume on the two paired body-parts. The LXX of Isa 35:3 (‘weak hands… feeble knees’) is the form Hebrews follows; the eschatological highway context (Isa 35) matches Hebrews' race imagery.

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.


‘Make straight paths for your feet’ (v. 13) echoes Prov 4:26 LXX (‘make straight/level tracks for your feet’) — Wisdom's image of the level, unswerving path, paired here with the lame foot to be healed. Verbal volume is high in the Greek; the LXX ‘straight tracks’ diverges from the Hebrew ‘ponder the path.’

Make the path of your feet level. Let all of your ways be established.


‘The peaceful fruit of righteousness’ (v. 11) faintly recalls the wisdom idiom ‘fruit of the righteous’ (Prov 11:30). Low volume — a stock metaphor rather than a pointed citation; offered for maximal coverage.

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. He who is wise wins souls.


The collocation ‘peaceful fruit of righteousness’ (v. 11) may also draw on Isa 32:17, where righteousness yields ‘peace’ and quietness. Contested and faint — the link rests on the shared righteousness/peace pairing, not distinctive wording.

The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.


Esau the cautionary figure — the brother who traded an eternal inheritance for an appetite. ‘Root of bitterness’ also alludes to Deut 29:18 (a root ‘bearing poison’). The warning: do not be the one who despised the birthright.

Esau sold his birthright for a single meal, and later, rejected, sought the blessing with tears (Genesis 25:29–34; 27:30–40).


‘He was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears’ (v. 17) draws directly on the second Esau scene — the irreversible lost blessing and Esau's ‘exceeding great and bitter cry.’ High historical/verbal coherence: the ‘tears’ and the finality of the verdict come from Gen 27, distinct from the birthright sale of Gen 25.

When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said to his father, ‘Bless me, even me also, my father.’ … Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. … ‘By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother.’


‘Any root of bitterness springing up’ (v. 15) is near-verbatim with Deut 29:18 LXX (‘a root springing up in bitterness/gall’). High volume and recurrence within the apostasy-warning theme. The LXX reads ‘root springing up in gall and bitterness’ where the Hebrew has ‘root bearing poison/wormwood’ — Hebrews follows the Greek.

lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter poison;


‘Follow after peace with all men’ (v. 14) echoes the psalm's ‘seek peace, and pursue it’ (Ps 34:14) — the same verb of pursuit. Medium volume; the imperative to chase after peace is distinctive enough to register, and Ps 34 is a favored source in early Christian paraenesis.

Depart from evil, and do good. seek peace, and pursue it.


The Sinai theophany — fire, darkness, trumpet, the forbidden mountain — set against Mount Zion. ‘If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned’ quotes Exod 19:12–13; ‘I am terrified and trembling’ (v. 21) echoes Moses at Deut 9:19; and the ‘blood that speaks better than Abel’ recalls Gen 4:10. Three texts braided into the two-mountain contrast.

You shall set bounds to the people all around, saying, ‘Be careful that you don't go up onto the mountain, or touch its border. Whoever touches the mountain shall be surely put to death.’ No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether it is animal or man, he shall not live.


The whole Sinai sensorium of v. 18–19 — fire, the burning mountain, the trumpet that grows louder, ‘the voice of words’ — is drawn from the theophany narrative of Exod 19:16–19. High verbal volume across multiple distinctive items (trumpet, fire, voice answering); this is the descriptive backbone behind the quoted prohibition.

On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. … All of Mount Sinai smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire … When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.


The triad ‘blackness, darkness, storm’ (v. 18) reproduces the LXX of Deut 4:11 (‘darkness, gloom, and storm/tempest’) almost verbatim — three nouns in sequence that the Hebrew renders differently. A textbook case of Hebrews following the Septuagint word-string; high volume on a rare cluster.

You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.


‘Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling”’ (v. 21) ascribes to the Sinai scene Moses' confession of terror, which in Scripture stands at Deut 9:19 (the golden-calf aftermath: ‘I was afraid/terrified’). Medium volume — Hebrews telescopes the fear onto Sinai; the ‘I am terrified’ wording matches the LXX ekphobos.

For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also.


‘Those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them’ (v. 19) paraphrases the people's plea at Exod 20:18–19 — they ask that God speak no more lest they die. Solid thematic and historical coherence; medium because it is summary rather than citation.

All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance. They said to Moses, ‘Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don't let God speak with us, lest we die.’


‘The blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel’ (v. 24) presupposes Gen 4:10, where Abel's blood ‘cries out from the ground.’ High coherence: Hebrews contrasts the two crying bloods — Abel's for vengeance, Christ's for mercy. The personified, speaking blood is the distinctive shared element.

Yahweh said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.’


‘You have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God’ (v. 22) draws on the Zion-theology of Ps 48:1–2, where Mount Zion is ‘the city of the great King.’ The pairing of Mount Zion with ‘city of God’ is the distinctive collocation; high coherence with Hebrews' heavenly-Jerusalem motif.

Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King.


‘The assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven’ (v. 23) draws on the apocalyptic book-of-life motif, classically Dan 12:1 (‘everyone found written in the book’ is delivered). Medium volume; the enrollment/registration image is the link, shared with Exod 32:32.

‘At that time Michael will stand up … and there will be a time of trouble … At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.’


‘Enrolled in heaven’ (v. 23) also recalls the heavenly book of Exod 32:32, the earliest ‘book which you have written.’ Lower volume than Dan 12:1; offered as the seed-text of the enrollment image for maximal coverage.

Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.


‘To God the Judge of all’ (v. 23) echoes Abraham's appeal to ‘the Judge of all the earth’ at Gen 18:25 — the title for God as universal judge. Medium volume; a recognized divine epithet, distinctively phrased in Genesis.

Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked … Shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right?


Haggai's promise of a final cosmic shaking. Hebrews fastens on ‘yet once more’: one last shaking removes everything shakeable, leaving only the unshakable Kingdom. The closing ‘our God is a consuming fire’ draws on Deut 4:24.

Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land;


‘Our God is a consuming fire’ (v. 29) is a near-verbatim citation of Deut 4:24 — high volume, the closing thunderclap of the two-mountains argument. The same Deuteronomy 4 context (v. 11) supplied the Sinai darkness-triad above, so recurrence (Hays) confirms the source; ‘consuming/devouring fire’ matches the LXX.

For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.


‘Whose voice shook the earth then’ (v. 26) recalls the quaking of Sinai at the theophany, Exod 19:18 (‘the whole mountain quaked greatly’). Medium volume; the earth-shaking at the giving of the law is what Haggai's ‘yet once more’ is set against, making this the implied precursor event.

All of Mount Sinai smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.


God's promise to Israel at the Jordan — ‘he will not fail you nor forsake you’ — lifted to underwrite contentment: you need not grasp for money, for you already have him. The same promise was spoken to Joshua (Josh 1:5).

Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or scared of them; for Yahweh your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.


The worshiper's confidence from the Hallel psalm, made the believer's answer to fear — paired at once with the Deuteronomy promise, two texts braided into one assurance.

Yahweh is on my side. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?


‘Some have entertained angels without knowing it’ (v. 2) reaches back to Abraham at Mamre, who welcomed three strangers who proved to be the Lord and his messengers, and to Lot, who took in the two angels at Sodom's gate (Gen 19:1–3). High volume on the thematic level (Hays' criterion of thematic coherence) and recurrence within Genesis itself; the verbal trigger is faint, but the narrative is so iconic that no quotation is needed for the echo to be heard.

Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, ‘My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please don't go away from your servant. Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. I will get a morsel of bread so you can refresh your heart. After that you may go your way, now that you have come to your servant.’ They said, ‘Very well, do as you have said.’ Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Quickly prepare three seahs of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.’ Abraham ran to the herd, and fetched a tender and good calf, and gave it to the servant. He hurried to dress it. He took butter, milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree, and they ate.


The Day-of-Atonement figure makes its last turn. The bodies of the sin-offering ‘are burned outside the camp’ (Lev 16:27) — so Jesus ‘suffered outside the gate.’ The figure that began at 1:3 ends as a summons: ‘go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.’

For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before Yahweh. (Leviticus 16:30)


The precise verse behind v. 11: ‘the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place… are burned outside of the camp.’ Hebrews tracks Lev 16:27 almost clause by clause (high verbal volume), then reads the carcass-disposal detail figurally — the place of shame outside the camp becomes the place of Christ's saving death ‘outside the gate.’ LXX and Hebrew agree closely here, so no textual fork; the move is interpretive, not text-critical.

The bull for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp; and they shall burn their skins, their flesh, and their dung with fire.


‘The fruit of lips’ (v. 15) renders the Septuagint of Hos 14:3 (Eng. 14:2), which reads ‘fruit of our lips’ (karpon cheileōn) where the Hebrew has ‘bulls (parim) of our lips.’ A classic LXX-vs-Hebrew divergence: the Greek's parō → ‘fruit’ for the Hebrew's ‘bulls’ supplies Hebrews its exact phrase, turning verbal praise into the new-covenant ‘sacrifice.’ Availability and verbal volume make this the strongest precursor for the phrase, though the citation is unmarked and so contested.

Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, ‘Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.’


The very phrase ‘sacrifice of praise’ (thysian aineseōs) is the Septuagint's standing rendering of the todah/thank-offering of Ps 50:14, 23, where God prefers thanksgiving to slaughtered bulls — the same spiritualizing of cult Hebrews performs. Conceptual coherence is high; the verbal trigger is the shared LXX cult-term, so this is heard as a supporting echo beneath the Hosea allusion.

Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High. … Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God's salvation to him.


A second, fainter source for ‘fruit of lips’ — Isa 57:19 LXX literally speaks of ‘the fruit of the lips’ (karpon cheileōn). Low volume and contested as the primary referent (Hosea is the better fit for the praise-as-sacrifice sense), but the exact lexical match means it cannot be excluded from a maximal inventory (Hays' criterion of availability).

I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says Yahweh; “and I will heal them.


‘Who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep’ (v. 20) fuses ‘the shepherd of the sheep’ with the verb ‘brought up.’ Isa 63:11 LXX speaks of the one who ‘brought up out of the sea the shepherd of the sheep’ (anagagōn… ton poimena tōn probatōn) — the closest verbal parallel anywhere in the Greek Bible, supplying both the title and the ‘brought up’ verb that Hebrews re-reads as resurrection. High verbal volume; the divergence is that the Exodus deliverance is read as a figure of the raising of Christ.

Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, ‘Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock?’


‘With the blood of an eternal covenant’ (v. 20) echoes Zech 9:11, ‘because of the blood of your covenant I have set free your prisoners from the pit’ — deliverance from the pit (death) by covenant blood, the same constellation Hebrews binds to the resurrection of the shepherd. Verbal volume on ‘blood of the covenant’ is strong; the link to ‘brought again from the dead’ supplies the thematic coherence.

As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which is no water.


‘The God of peace’ and ‘an eternal covenant’ together sound Ezekiel's promise of an ‘everlasting covenant’ of ‘peace’ (Ezek 37:26), set in the chapter of resurrection from the graves (37:1–14) and the Davidic shepherd (37:24). Conceptual coherence — peace, eternal covenant, shepherd, resurrection — is high; the verbal trigger is the shared ‘everlasting/eternal covenant,’ so a medium-volume echo.

Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will place them, multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forever more.


A fainter source for ‘an eternal covenant’: Isa 55:3 LXX promises an ‘everlasting covenant’ (diathēkēn aiōnion), the same phrase Hebrews uses, and ties it to the Davidic (shepherd-king) mercies. Low volume and contested against Ezek 37 and Jer 32:40, but the exact phrase keeps it in a maximal inventory.

Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.


The doxology's petition that God ‘make you complete… to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight’ (v. 21) faintly echoes Ps 143:10, ‘Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; your Spirit is good.’ Both join doing God's will to God's own enabling Spirit/work. Very low verbal volume — a liturgical commonplace rather than a citation — included only for completeness.

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.


James addresses 'the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion,' invoking the deuteronomic theology of Israel scattered among the nations and the promised regathering. The Diaspora language presupposes the exile-and-return pattern Moses foretells, with the LXX term diaspora derived from this and related passages.

It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Yahweh your God has driven you, and return to Yahweh your God, and obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul; that then Yahweh your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you, and […]


The phrase 'the twelve tribes' rests on Jacob's blessing of his sons, the foundational enumeration of the tribes of Israel. James reclaims the full eschatological Israel as the addressee of his letter.

All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his blessing.


The constitution of Israel as twelve tribes at Sinai (twelve pillars for the twelve tribes) lies behind the corporate self-understanding James assumes. Faint background to the tribal designation.

Moses wrote all Yahweh’s words, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.


The LXX speaks of the Lord gathering the dispersed (diasporas) of Israel, reinforcing the regathering hope implicit in James's address to scattered tribes. A faint scriptural resonance with the Dispersion motif.

Yahweh builds up Jerusalem. He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.


Sirach's instruction, 'My son, if you come to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for testing... accept whatever befalls you, for gold is tested in the fire,' is the closest verbal and conceptual parallel to James's call to count trials as joy because testing produces endurance. The wisdom theme of the testing of the righteous undergirds the whole passage.

My son, if you come to serve the Lord, Prepare your soul for temptation. Set your heart aright, and constantly endure, And make not haste in time of calamity. Cleave to him, and depart not, That you may be increased at your latter end. Accept whatever is brought upon you, And be longsuffering when you passest into humiliation. For gold is tried in the fire, And acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. Put your trust in him, and he will help you: […]


Wisdom describes the righteous being 'tried like gold in the furnace' and found worthy of God, a refining-through-affliction theology that matches James's claim that tested faith yields endurance and perfection. The deuterocanonical wisdom tradition shapes James's reading of suffering.

For even if in the sight of men they be punished, Their hope is full of immortality; And having borne a little chastening, they will receive great good; Because God made trial of them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace he proved them, And as a whole burnt offering he accepted them.


Job is the paradigmatic example of the testing of the righteous producing steadfast endurance, a connection James himself makes explicit in 5:11. The trials-into-perfection logic of James 1 draws on the Joban pattern of the patient sufferer.

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east. His sons went and held a feast in the […]


The binding of Isaac, where 'God tested Abraham,' is the foundational scriptural instance of testing that proves and perfects faith. It stands behind James's positive valuation of trials as the proving ground of faith.

After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.”


'The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests hearts.' The refining-as-testing metaphor that James assumes for faith is a wisdom commonplace rooted here.

The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but Yahweh tests the hearts.


God led Israel in the wilderness 'to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart.' The wilderness testing motif provides a covenantal backdrop to James's pedagogy of trial-induced maturity.

You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not.


'If you call out for insight... then you will find the knowledge of God, for the Lord gives wisdom.' James's 'if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives' directly echoes the Proverbial promise that God is the giver of wisdom to those who seek it.

Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures: then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, and find the knowledge of God. For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.


Solomon asks God for wisdom to govern and God grants it generously, the paradigmatic instance of asking God for wisdom and receiving it. James's exhortation to ask God for wisdom presupposes this Solomonic precedent.

Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this your great people?” The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, neither have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern […]


'I prayed, and understanding was given me; I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.' This deuterocanonical reworking of Solomon's prayer closely matches James's pattern of asking and receiving wisdom from God.

For this cause I prayed, and understanding was given me: I called upon God, and there came to me a spirit of wisdom.


Sirach affirms that all wisdom is from the Lord, who 'lavished her upon those who love him.' The generosity of God in giving wisdom, central to James 1:5, is a hallmark of Sirach's opening hymn to wisdom.

All wisdom comes from the Lord, And is with him forever. The sand of the seas, and the drops of rain, And the days of eternity, who shall count? The height of the heaven, and the breadth of the earth, And the deep, and wisdom, who shall search them out? Wisdom has been created before all things, And the understanding of prudence from everlasting. To whom has the root of wisdom been revealed? And who has known her shrewd counsels? There is one wise, […]


'The wicked are like the tossing sea... its waters toss up mire and dirt.' James's image of the doubter as 'a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed' draws on Isaiah's simile of the restless, unstable sea for the unrighteous.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can’t rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.


'Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.' The single-minded trust James demands over against the double-minded doubter resonates with the wholehearted reliance Proverbs commends.

Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.


'They utter lies... with a double heart they speak.' James's 'double-minded man, unstable in all his ways' may echo the biblical idiom of the divided heart condemned in the Psalms.

Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.


'Do not approach the Lord with a divided heart.' Sirach's warning against the double heart directly anticipates James's condemnation of the dipsychos (double-minded) doubter who must not expect to receive from the Lord.

Disobey not the fear of the Lord; And come not to him with a double heart.


'All flesh is grass... the grass withers, the flower fades.' James's portrait of the rich passing away 'like the flower in the grass,' withered by the scorching sun, is a near-quotation of Isaiah's oracle on the transience of mortal glory before the abiding word of God.

The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.”


'As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it, and it is gone.' James's image of the rich man fading like a flower scorched and blown away closely parallels this Psalm's meditation on human transience.

As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more.


'Man... comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.' Job's lament over the fleeting flower-life of mortals reinforces James's warning that the rich will fade away in their pursuits.

“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble. He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.


'My heart is struck down like grass and has withered.' The withering-grass image for human frailty resonates faintly with James's depiction of the rich man's perishing beauty.

My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.


'Like flourishing leaves on a spreading tree which sheds some and puts forth others, so are the generations of flesh and blood: one dies and another is born.' Sirach's foliage-of-the-flesh image parallels James's meditation on the fading of mortal wealth.

As of the leaves flourishing on a thick tree, Some it sheds, and some it makes to grow; So also of the generations of flesh and blood, One comes to an end, and another is born.


Hannah's song proclaims that the Lord 'brings low and exalts; he raises the poor from the dust.' The reversal James announces, the lowly exalted and the rich humbled, draws on this scriptural pattern of God's status-reversal.

Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up. He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s. He has set the world on them.


'Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me.' James's redirection of the rich man's glory toward his humbling echoes Jeremiah's reordering of the grounds for boasting.

Thus says Yahweh, Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don’t let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Yahweh.


'Blessed is he who waits.' James's beatitude on the man who endures testing echoes the apocalyptic blessing pronounced on those who persevere to the eschatological reward.

Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred thirty-five days.


Zechariah's 'crown' set in the temple as a memorial provides faint background to James's promised 'crown of life' for those who endure. The royal/priestly crown imagery is suggestive but not directly quoted.

The crowns shall be to Helem, and to Tobijah, and to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in Yahweh’s temple.


The righteous 'will receive a glorious crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of the Lord.' This deuterocanonical promise of a crown to the steadfast righteous closely matches James's crown of life awarded to those who endure and love God.

Therefore will they receive the crown of royal dignity And the diadem of beauty from the Lord’s hand; Because with his right hand will he cover them, And with his arm will he shield them.


God shows steadfast love 'to those who love me and keep my commandments.' James's phrase 'those who love him' draws on the deuteronomic/Decalogue language of love for God as the covenantal mark of the faithful who receive his promise.

and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.


Sirach calls the fear of the Lord 'the crown of wisdom, making peace and perfect health to flourish.' The crown-as-reward-of-fidelity imagery resonates faintly with James's crown of life.

The fear of the Lord is the crown of wisdom, Making peace and perfect health to flourish.


'Do not say, It was the Lord's doing that I fell away... he himself made man from the beginning and left him in the power of his own choice.' Sirach explicitly denies that God is the author of sin and locates temptation in human free choice, the precise theology James voices in saying God tempts no one.

Say not you, It is through the Lord that I fell away; For you shall not do the things that he hates. Say not you, It is he that caused me to err; For he has no need of a sinful man. The Lord hates every abomination; And those who fear him love it not. He himself made man from the beginning, And left him in the hand of his own counsel. If you will, you shall keep the commandments; And to perform faithfulness is of your own good pleasure. He has set fire […]


The Eden narrative of desire (the fruit 'a delight to the eyes') giving birth to transgression and thence to death stands behind James's genealogy of sin: lust conceives, bears sin, and sin brings forth death. The fall pattern shapes his anatomy of temptation.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely […]


The seductress of Proverbs 7 lures the youth so that 'her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.' James's image of enticing desire that conceives and ends in death echoes this Wisdom portrayal of temptation-to-death.

For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice. I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding, passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness. Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent. She is loud and defiant. Her feet don’t stay in […]


'Sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.' The personification of sin as a lurking, desiring power that James develops in the conceive-and-bear imagery resonates with God's warning to Cain.

If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”


The Edenic sentence 'in the day you eat of it you shall surely die' establishes the sin-death linkage that James assumes when full-grown sin produces death. Faint background to the genealogy of death.

but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”


'Flee from sin as from a snake... its teeth are lion's teeth, destroying the souls of men.' Sirach's image of sin as a deadly devouring power resonates faintly with James's sin-bearing-death sequence.

Flee from sin as from the face of a serpent; For if you draw near it will bite you: The teeth thereof are the teeth of a lion, Slaying the souls of men. All iniquity is as a two-edged sword; Its stroke has no healing.


God's 'Father of lights' designates him as Creator of the heavenly luminaries set in the firmament on the fourth day. James draws on the creation account to name God as source of the celestial lights, then contrasts their changing shadows with his own constancy.

God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of sky to give light on the earth”; and it was so. God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of sky to give light to the earth, and to rule over the day […]


'For I the Lord do not change.' James's claim that with the Father of lights there is 'no variation, nor turning shadow' affirms divine immutability in the very terms Malachi uses to assure Israel of God's unchanging fidelity.

“For I, Yahweh, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.


'God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.' Balaam's oracle on God's unchanging reliability undergirds James's contrast between God's constancy and the shifting shadows of the luminaries.

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?


The hymn praises God who made 'the great lights... the sun to rule over the day, the moon and stars to rule over the night.' James's 'Father of lights' draws on this liturgical confession of God as maker of the heavenly bodies.

To him who made the great lights; for his loving kindness endures forever: The sun to rule by day; for his loving kindness endures forever; The moon and stars to rule by night; for his loving kindness endures forever:


'The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord.' James's claim that we are 'a kind of first fruits of his creatures,' brought forth by the word of truth, applies the cultic firstfruits law to the new-birth of believers as God's consecrated portion.

The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.


The firstfruits offering ritual, with its confession of God's saving acts, lies behind James's designation of believers as firstfruits. The dedication of the first and best to God interprets the believers' status among his creatures.

It shall be, when you have come in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, possess it, and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you. You shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and […]


'Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest.' James's 'firstfruits of his creatures' transfers to the reborn community Jeremiah's designation of Israel as God's firstfruits, holy and set apart.

Israel was holiness to Yahweh, the first fruits of his increase. All who devour him shall be held guilty. Evil shall come on them,”’ says Yahweh.”


God's creative word, 'Let there be light,' resonates with James's pairing of the Father of lights with the begetting 'word of truth' by which God gives new birth. Faint creation-by-word background.

God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.


Wisdom present with God at creation provides a faint backdrop to God begetting believers by the word of truth as firstfruits of his creatures. Contested wisdom-cosmology resonance.

“Yahweh possessed me in the beginning of his work, before his deeds of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth existed. When there were no depths, I was born, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was born; while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the beginning of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, I was […]


'When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.' James's counsel to be 'slow to speak' draws directly on the Wisdom tradition's repeated commendation of restrained speech.

In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely.


'Whoever restrains his words has knowledge... even a fool who keeps silent is counted wise.' The pairing of measured speech with wisdom underlies James's swift-to-hear, slow-to-speak triad.

He who spares his words has knowledge. He who is even tempered is a man of understanding. Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is counted wise. When he shuts his lips, he is thought to be discerning.


'Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.' James's 'slow to anger,' with the claim that human anger does not produce God's righteousness, restates this Proverb's praise of restrained wrath.

He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a quick temper displays folly.


'A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.' James's concern that the anger of man does not work God's righteousness resonates with the Proverbial linkage of speech and the management of anger.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.


'Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.' James's 'slow to anger' directly parallels Qoheleth's warning against hasty wrath.

Don’t be hasty in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools.


'Be quick to hear, but deliberate in answering... let your life be sincere.' Sirach's near-identical counsel to be swift in listening and slow in reply is the closest extant verbal parallel to James's triad of swift-to-hear, slow-to-speak.

Be swift to hear; And with patience make your answer. If you have understanding, answer your neighbor; And if not, let your hand be upon your mouth. Glory and dishonor is in talk: And the tongue of a man is his fall.


'Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.' The warning against hasty speech reinforces James's slow-to-speak exhortation.


'Unjust anger cannot be justified... a wise man will hold his tongue until the right moment.' Sirach's linkage of controlled anger and restrained speech resonates with James's exhortation on listening, speaking, and wrath.

Unjust wrath can never be justified; For the sway of his wrath is his downfall. A man that is longsuffering will bear for a season, And afterward gladness will spring up to him; He will hide his words for a season, And the lips of many will tell forth his understanding.


The new-covenant law 'written on the heart' resonates faintly with James's 'implanted word which is able to save your souls,' an internalized word effecting salvation. Contested but thematically apt.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:


Moses insists the commandment is 'not too hard... but very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.' James's demand to be doers and not merely hearers of the word reflects the deuteronomic insistence that the word is given to be done.

For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you or too distant. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do […]


The people 'hear your words, but they will not do them'; the prophet is to them like a pleasant singer they enjoy yet disobey. James's hearers-who-are-not-doers, self-deluded, directly mirrors Ezekiel's indictment of those who listen without obeying.

They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don’t do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain. Behold, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they don’t do them.


The doing of the law that culminates in love of neighbor (cited by James in 2:8) stands behind his 'perfect law of freedom' that demands enactment, not mere hearing. Faint anticipatory link.

“‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.


'The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.' James's 'perfect law of freedom' that blesses the doer draws on the Psalter's praise of the perfect, soul-restoring Torah.

Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s testimony is sure, making wise the simple.


'Listen to the statutes and rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live.' The hear-and-do-that-you-may-live formula resonates with James's promise that the doer of the work will be blessed.

Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.


'All wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and in all wisdom there is the fulfilment of the law.' Sirach's pairing of wisdom with doing the law resonates faintly with James's doer-of-the-word who is blessed.

All wisdom is the fear of the Lord; And in all wisdom is the doing of the law.


'I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle.' James's image of bridling the tongue as the mark of true religion draws directly on the psalmist's resolve to muzzle his speech.

I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”


'Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.' The plea for divine restraint of the tongue parallels James's demand that the religious man bridle his tongue lest his religion be worthless.

Set a watch, Yahweh, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips.


'Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.' The Wisdom commendation of tongue-control reinforces James's linkage of bridled speech with genuine piety.

Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.


'Bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.' James's definition of pure religion as visiting orphans and widows in their affliction restates Isaiah's prophetic summons to care for the fatherless and the widow as the true worship God desires.

Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”


God 'executes justice for the fatherless and the widow.' James grounds pure religion in imitating the God who defends orphans and widows, a defining mark of Israel's covenant ethics.

He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing.


'You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.' The covenant law's protection of widows and orphans, with divine wrath against their oppressors, undergirds James's identification of their care as undefiled religion.

“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.


'He will not ignore the supplication of the orphan, nor the widow when she pours out her complaint.' Sirach's portrait of God hearing the cry of orphans and widows reinforces James's standard of true religion as their care.

He will in no wise despise the supplication of the fatherless; Nor the widow, when she pours out her tale. Do not the tears of the widow run down her cheek? And is not her cry against him that has caused them to fall? He that serves God according to his good pleasure shall be accepted, And his supplication shall reach to the clouds. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds; And till it come near, he will not be comforted; And he will not depart, till […]


Isaiah rejects cultic observance divorced from justice, calling instead to 'wash yourselves... cease to do evil' and defend the oppressed. James's contrast of worthless versus pure-and-undefiled religion enacts this prophetic critique of empty ritual.

Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah! “What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination […]


'Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor.' Zechariah's prophetic restatement of covenant care for the vulnerable resonates with James's measure of authentic religion.

“Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother. Don’t oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’


'Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.' James's God-and-Father before whom pure religion attends to orphans and widows echoes this Psalmic title for the divine defender of the vulnerable.

A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.


'Touch no unclean thing... purify yourselves.' James's call to keep oneself 'unstained by the world' resonates faintly with the prophetic summons to ritual and moral purity over against defiling contact.

Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing! Go out of the midst of her! Cleanse yourselves, you who bear the vessels of Yahweh.


'Be a father to orphans, and like a husband to their mother.' Sirach's exhortation to care for orphans and widows resonates with James's standard of pure religion, reinforcing the Wisdom tradition's mercy ethic.

Be as a father to the fatherless, And instead of a husband to their mother: So will you be as a son of the Most High, And he will love you more than your mother does.


James condemns showing partiality (prosopolempsia) in the assembly. Leviticus 19:15 is the foundational prohibition: 'you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.' The verbal and thematic correspondence is strong, and the same chapter supplies the love-command James quotes in v.8.

“‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness.


Deuteronomy 1:17 enjoins judges to 'not be partial in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike.' James's scene of seating the rich well and the poor poorly enacts the very partiality this Mosaic charge to judges forbids. Volume and recurrence support the echo though no quotation is made.

You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.”


'You shall not pervert justice; you shall not be partial' reinforces the impartiality motif standing behind James's rebuke of favoritism toward the rich. Part of the cluster of Deuteronomic impartiality texts; less verbally distinctive than Leviticus 19:15.

You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous.


'It is not good to show partiality in judgment.' James's wisdom idiom and concern with favoritism in judging ('judges with evil thoughts,' v.4) resonates with this proverb. Conceptual echo within the impartiality tradition.

These also are sayings of the wise. To show partiality in judgment is not good.


Hannah's song: God 'raises up the poor from the dust... to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.' James 2:5 says God chose the poor to be heirs of the kingdom, reversing the world's status-seating. The seating/inheritance reversal aligns closely with James's argument.

He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s. He has set the world on them.


'He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes.' James 2:5's election of the poor to royal inheritance draws on this reversal-of-status theme common to the Psalms of the anawim.

He raises up the poor out of the dust. Lifts up the needy from the ash heap;


'Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.' James rebukes those who 'dishonored the poor man' (v.6). Faint wisdom-tradition echo of honoring rather than shaming the poor.

He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who has pity on the poor.


'Do not rob the poor... for the LORD will plead their cause.' James 2:6 describes the rich who oppress and 'drag you before the courts.' Faint echo of the oppressed-poor / oppressor-rich topos; the Lord's vindication is implied in James's eschatology.

Don’t exploit the poor, because he is poor; and don’t crush the needy in court; for Yahweh will plead their case, and plunder the life of those who plunder them.


Amos indicts those who 'sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals... trample the head of the poor.' James's portrait of rich oppressors dragging the poor to court stands in this prophetic stream of social critique. Conceptual, not verbal.

Thus says Yahweh: “For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same maiden, to profane my holy name;


Amos condemns those who 'trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end.' James 2:6's oppressing rich participate in the same prophetic denunciation of economic exploitation. Faint thematic resonance.

Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail, Saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit; that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’”


The blasphemer who 'blasphemed the Name' (ha-Shem) in Leviticus 24 underlies Jewish reverence for the divine Name. James 2:7 says the rich 'blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called.' Faint allusion to the gravity of blaspheming the Name invoked over God's people.

The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.


'...all the nations who are called by my name' (cited at Acts 15:17 in the Jacobite context). James 2:7's 'honorable name by which you are called' evokes the biblical idiom of bearing God's name. Faint and contested as a direct source.

that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name,” says Yahweh who does this.


'All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD.' James 2:7's language of bearing the honorable name draws on this covenantal idiom of God's name invoked over his people. Faint background echo.

All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by Yahweh’s name, and they will be afraid of you.


Explicit quotation introduced as 'the Scripture': 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' James names this the 'royal law.' This is a formal citation of Leviticus 19:18, the same Holiness Code chapter that grounds his impartiality argument.

“‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.


James cites 'Do not commit murder' as the word of the lawgiver (v.11). This is the Decalogue commandment, Exodus 20:13. Quoted alongside the adultery commandment to argue the law's unity.


James cites 'Do not commit adultery' (v.11) from the Decalogue, Exodus 20:14. The pairing of adultery and murder is a formal scriptural citation establishing that breaking one point makes one a transgressor of all.


The Decalogue's murder prohibition also appears at Deuteronomy 5:17; James's citation draws on the Decalogue in either form. Listed as an alternate source for the murder commandment quoted in v.11.


The adultery prohibition also stands at Deuteronomy 5:18; James's quotation reflects the Decalogue. Provided as the Deuteronomic parallel to the Exodus citation in v.11.


'Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.' James 2:13 says 'judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.' The lex talionis of mercy/mercilessness is closely paralleled.

Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.


'...to do justice, and to love mercy (hesed), and to walk humbly with your God.' James's exaltation of mercy as triumphing over judgment (v.13) draws on the prophetic prizing of mercy as the heart of covenant obedience.

He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?


'Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy... do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor.' James links impartial judgment with mercy toward the poor in the same breath. Strong thematic correspondence.

“Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother. Don’t oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’


Ben Sira: 'Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned... Does anyone harbor anger against another, and expect healing from the Lord?' James 2:13's principle that the merciless receive merciless judgment closely parallels this deuterocanonical wisdom on reciprocal mercy.

He that takes vengeance will find vengeance from the Lord; And he will surely make firm his sins. Forgive your neighbor the hurt that he has done you; And then your sins will be pardoned when you pray. Man cherisheth anger against man; And does he seek healing from the Lord? Upon a man like himself he has no mercy; And does he make supplication for his own sins?


Tobit's almsgiving counsel: 'give alms from your possessions... almsgiving delivers from death.' James's coupling of mercy/almsgiving with deliverance at judgment (v.13) resonates with this deuterocanonical theology of merciful deeds. Conceptual echo.

Give alms from your possessions. When you give alms, don’t let your eye be envious. Don’t turn away your face from any poor man, and the face of God won’t be turned away from you. As your possessions are, give alms of it according to your abundance. If you have little, don’t be afraid to give alms according to that little; for you lay up a good treasure for yourself against the day of necessity; because alms-giving delivers from death, and doesn’t allow […]


'Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.' Background to James's mercy-rewarded-at-judgment principle. Faint wisdom echo within the mercy cluster.

He who has pity on the poor lends to Yahweh; he will reward him.


'You believe that God is one' (v.19) cites the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4, 'Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.' James affirms monotheism then notes even demons hold it and shudder, making the point that bare belief without works is insufficient.

Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.


'Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar' (v.21) refers directly to the Aqedah, Genesis 22:9-12, where Abraham binds Isaac on the altar and the angel stays his hand. The binding is James's proof that Abraham's faith was completed by works.

They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to kill his son. Yahweh’s angel called to him out of the sky, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.” He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy, neither do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not […]


Formal citation: 'the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness"' (v.23). This is a verbatim quotation of Genesis 15:6, here read as fulfilled in the Aqedah.

He believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.


'He was called the friend of God' (v.23). Isaiah 41:8 calls Israel the offspring of 'Abraham my friend' (LXX: 'whom I loved'). This title for Abraham, not stated in Genesis, is James's scriptural warrant for naming him God's friend.

“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend,


Jehoshaphat's prayer recalls God giving the land to the descendants of 'Abraham your friend forever.' Together with Isaiah 41:8 this is the scriptural basis for James 2:23's 'friend of God' epithet. Listed as parallel source.

Didn’t you, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it to the seed of Abraham your friend forever?


'Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way' (v.25) refers to Joshua 2, where Rahab hides the Israelite spies and lets them down by another route. Her hospitable, faith-driven deed is James's second exemplum of justifying works.

Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, including Jericho.” They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there. The king of Jericho was told, “Behold, men of the children of Israel came in here tonight to spy out the land.” The king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered into your house; for they have come to […]


Joshua 6:17,22-25 records Rahab and her household being spared at Jericho's fall because she hid the messengers. James 2:25's commendation of Rahab presupposes this deliverance as the vindication of her works. Supplies the outcome of the act James cites.

The city shall be devoted, even it and all that is in it, to Yahweh. Only Rahab the prostitute shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.


God's deliberation, 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?', reflects the intimacy underlying the 'friend of God' tradition. Faint background echo to James 2:23's friendship motif; the explicit title comes from Isaiah/Chronicles.

Yahweh said, “Will I hide from Abraham what I do, since Abraham has surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him? For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him.”


'Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.' This obedience tradition supports James's claim that Abraham's faith was perfected by works (v.22). Conceptual echo of Abraham as the man whose faith issued in obedience.

because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”


Mattathias's deathbed exhortation: 'Was not Abraham found faithful when tested, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness?' This deuterocanonical text already fuses Genesis 15:6 with the Aqedah-as-test (Genesis 22), exactly the synthesis James makes in vv.21-23. Strong evidence James draws on this interpretive tradition.

Was not Abraham found faithful in temptation, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness?


Ben Sira's praise of Abraham: 'kept the law of the Most High... when tested he was found faithful,' linking covenant, testing, and reckoned righteousness. James's works-completing-faith reading of Abraham stands in this Second Temple tradition. Deuterocanonical interpretive parallel.

Abraham was a great father of a multitude of nations; And there was none found like him in glory; Who kept the law of the Most High, And was taken into covenant with him: In his flesh he established the covenant; And when he was proved, he was found faithful. Therefore he assured him by an oath, That the nations should be blessed in his seed; That he would multiply him as the dust of the earth, And exalt his seed as the stars, And cause them to inherit […]


The angel's oath after the binding, 'because you have done this... I will surely bless you,' grounds the reward of Abraham's obedient act. Reinforces James's point (v.22) that faith was perfected through the work of offering Isaac. Faint extension of the Aqedah citation.

and said, “I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies. All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your seed, because you have obeyed my voice.”


True fasting is 'to share your bread with the hungry... when you see the naked, to cover him.' James 2:15-16's example of a brother 'naked and in lack of daily food' whom one fails to clothe and feed echoes this prophetic critique of empty piety divorced from deeds of mercy. Faint thematic echo.

Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?


Job's defense: 'if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing... if his body has not blessed me for warming him with the fleece of my sheep.' James's hollow 'be warmed and filled' (v.16) without provision inverts Job's actual care for the naked and cold. Faint wisdom echo.

if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;


'You shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but open your hand to him.' James 2:15-16 rebukes the empty word that withholds 'the things the body needs' from a needy brother. Faint Torah echo of obligatory open-handedness.

If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, which he lacks.


James's warning that teachers face a heavier judgment and that the one who does not stumble in word is perfect rests on the wisdom axiom that 'when words are many, transgression is not lacking.' Volume is conceptual rather than verbal, but the coherence with James's whole tongue-theme is high.

In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely.


Ben Sira's beatitude, 'Blessed is the one who does not blunder with his lips,' is the nearest Second-Temple parallel to 'if anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man.' Recurrence in the sapiential stream James draws on raises the confidence.

Blessed is the man that has not slipped with his mouth, And is not pricked with sorrow for sins.


The image of bridling the mouth/body is voiced in the Psalter: 'I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will bridle my mouth.' James reuses the same controlling-the-tongue metaphor that the psalm applies to speech, transferring it to the bit-and-bridle figure.

I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”


The horse curbed with bit and bridle so it will not stray is the psalm's image for the need of restraint; James literalizes it ('we put bits into the horses' mouths') to argue the small member governs the whole body.

Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.


Ben Sira's extended denunciation of 'the third tongue' that 'has destroyed strong cities' and is a scourge of fire is the closest antecedent to James's 'the tongue is a fire… a restless evil.' The shared fire-imagery and the theme of the untamable, ruinous tongue make this the controlling Second-Temple subtext.

Curse the whisperer and double-tongued: For he has destroyed many that were at peace. A third person’s tongue has shaken many, And dispersed them from nation to nation; And it has pulled down strong cities, And overthrown the houses of great men. A third person’s tongue has cast out brave women, And deprived them of their labors. He that hearkens to it will not find rest, Nor shall he dwell quietly. The stroke of a whip makes a mark in the flesh; But the […]


'A worthless man… his speech is like a scorching fire' supplies the proverbial root of James's tongue-as-fire. The volume is moderate but the figure is distinctive.

A worthless man devises mischief. His speech is like a scorching fire.


'They make their tongue sharp as a serpent's; adder's poison is under their lips' stands behind James's 'full of deadly poison.' The pairing of the tongue with serpent venom is rare enough to mark a genuine echo.

They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Viper’s poison is under their lips. Selah.


The deceitful tongue answered with 'glowing coals of the broom tree' shares the tongue-and-fire association, a fainter contributory echo.

Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.


'Every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature is tamed by mankind' recalls the creation grant of dominion over the beasts; James turns the trope ironically — humanity tames the beasts but cannot tame its own tongue.

God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”


Cursing 'men, who are made in the image of God' depends directly on the creation of humanity in God's image; the inconsistency of blessing God and cursing his image-bearers is the moral force of the passage.

God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.


'In the likeness of God he made him' reinforces the image-of-God ground; Genesis 9:6 ('whoever sheds man's blood… for God made man in his own image') is the same principle applied to harming the image-bearer.

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God’s likeness.


'The fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so the expression of a thought discloses the heart' is the sapiential source of James's fig-tree/vine and spring analogies, where the source determines the fruit.

The fruit of a tree declares the husbandry thereof; So is the utterance of the thought of the heart of a man.


'Death and life are in the power of the tongue' undergirds the blessing-and-cursing antithesis as a faint background echo.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.


The catalog of wisdom's qualities — 'intelligent, holy, … pure, … beneficent, … unhampered' — is the closest model for James's 'wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle… full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.' The list-form and the heavenly origin of wisdom align closely.

For she that is the architect of all things taught me, even wisdom. For there is in her a spirit quick of understanding, holy, Alone in kind, manifold, Subtil, freely moving, Clear in utterance, unpolluted, Distinct, unharmed, Loving what is good, keen, unhindered, Beneficent, loving toward man, Stedfast, sure, free from care, All-powerful, all-surveying, And penetrating through all spirits That are quick of understanding, pure, most subtle: For wisdom is […]


'The Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding' grounds James's distinction of a wisdom that 'comes down from above' against an earthly counterfeit.

For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.


'The effect of righteousness will be peace' stands directly behind 'the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace,' linking righteousness and shalom as James does.

The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.


'Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love' supplies the agricultural metaphor of sowing-and-reaping righteousness that James applies to peacemakers.

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until he comes and rains righteousness on you.


'One who sows righteousness gets a sure reward' (cf. 11:30, 'the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life') reinforces the harvest-of-righteousness figure.

Wicked people earn deceitful wages, but one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.


Ben Sira's teaching that all wisdom is from the Lord and poured out on the faithful is the wider sapiential horizon for James's heavenly wisdom.

All wisdom comes from the Lord, And is with him forever. The sand of the seas, and the drops of rain, And the days of eternity, who shall count? The height of the heaven, and the breadth of the earth, And the deep, and wisdom, who shall search them out? Wisdom has been created before all things, And the understanding of prudence from everlasting. To whom has the root of wisdom been revealed? And who has known her shrewd counsels? There is one wise, […]


Amos's complaint that the people 'have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood' is the prophetic inverse of James's peaceful harvest of righteousness — a faint contrastive echo.

Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;


'You lust and do not have; you kill, covet, and cannot obtain' traces the chain of conflict to covetous desire, the disorder the tenth commandment forbids. The volume is thematic but coheres with James's diagnosis of war from within.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”


The progression from frustrated desire to murder ('you kill, covet') echoes Cain, whose envy of his brother led to the first killing; James 3-4 elsewhere leans on the genealogy of sin from desire.

but he didn’t respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell. Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen? If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.” Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, […]


'You adulterers and adulteresses! friendship with the world is hostility toward God' deploys the prophetic figure of Israel's covenant-breaking as spiritual adultery, of which Hosea's marriage to Gomer is the paradigm. The single vocative 'adulteresses' presupposes the whole prophetic marriage-metaphor.

Yahweh’s word that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. When Yahweh spoke at first by Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of unfaithfulness; for the land commits great adultery, forsaking Yahweh.” So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived, and bore him a […]


'The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously' rests on the self-revelation of the LORD as 'a jealous God'; the divine jealousy that brooks no rival is exactly what makes friendship with the world enmity. Exodus 34:14 ('the LORD, whose name is Jealous') is the same datum.

you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,


James cites it with a formula ('therefore it says'): 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble' reproduces the Septuagint of Proverbs 3:34 nearly verbatim (the Greek reads 'the Lord opposes the arrogant'). The same verse is cited at 1 Peter 5:5.

Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble.

The Lord resists the proud; but he gives grace to the humble.


The Song of Moses, where Israel 'made me jealous with what is no god,' is part of the jealousy-of-God background to v.5.

They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.


'I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy' supplies a prophetic restatement of the divine jealousy James invokes for the indwelling Spirit.

Thus says Yahweh of Armies: “I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.”


'Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you' restates the covenant promise 'Return to me… and I will return to you.' The reciprocal-approach formula is distinctive to this prophetic call to repentance.

Therefore tell them: Thus says Yahweh of Armies: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.


'Return to me, and I will return to you' is the same drawing-near formula; Malachi's setting of repentance and cleansing matches James's summons to sinners and the double-minded.

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of Armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’


'Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean' lies behind 'cleanse your hands, you sinners,' the prophetic call to moral purification.

Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.


'Clean hands and a pure heart' is the temple-entrance requirement that James fuses with Isaiah: 'cleanse your hands… purify your hearts.' The pairing of hands and heart is verbally close.

He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully.


'When they are humbled you say, It is because of pride; but he saves the lowly' anticipates 'humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.' The humbling-then-exalting reversal is the same.

When they cast down, you shall say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.


'One's pride will bring him low, but the lowly in spirit will obtain honor' is the proverb James restates as 'humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.'

A man’s pride brings him low, but one of lowly spirit gains honor.


'Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning' supplies the lament-and-mourning summons ('let your laughter be turned to mourning').

“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.


'There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy' echoes the Song of Moses, 'I kill and I make alive… there is none who can deliver out of my hand' — the sole divine prerogative over life and death.

“See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.


'The LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us' is the nearest verbal antecedent to James's 'one lawgiver and judge… able to save.' The triad judge/lawgiver/savior is distinctive.

For Yahweh is our judge. Yahweh is our lawgiver. Yahweh is our king. He will save us.


'You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people' grounds 'do not speak against one another,' part of the same Holiness-Code love-of-neighbor James reads as the royal law.

“‘You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people. “‘You shall not endanger the life of your neighbor. I am Yahweh.


'Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring' is the proverb James expands into the rebuke of merchants who plan a year's trade 'whereas you do not know what tomorrow will bring.'

Don’t boast about tomorrow; for you don’t know what a day may bring.