1Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. 2Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. 4Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies. 5You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6You have condemned and you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you.
7Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain. 8You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
9Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door. 10Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
12But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear— not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your “no”, “no”, so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy.
13Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. 14Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. 17Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
19Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, 20let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Elijah was a prophet, from Tishbe in Gilead, an opponent of Ahab and Jezebel. Elijah began his public ministry, as recorded in the books of Kings, with a forecast of a long drought and famine, to show the ineffectuality of Baal, who was held by his worshippers to control the rain. The drought was ended in spectacular fashion by Elijah's contest with the priests of the Canaanite fertility god: to see whether Baal or the Lord would demonstrate his power by setting fire to the wood on which a bull had been laid for a burnt offering. The contest ended with the followers of Jahweh victorious, and the priests of Baal being slaughtered. Rain then fell, ending the drought, but Elijah was obliged to go into temporary hiding to avoid persecution at the hands of Jezebel, Ahab's wife. It was about this time that Elijah called Elisha to work with him. Following the affair of Naboth's vineyard, Elijah foretold the bloody end of Ahab's house and the violent death of Jezebel, who was to be eaten by dogs.
Many stories of miracles are associated with Elijah It is recorded that during the famine he was fed first by ravens, then from the small supply of food belonging to a widow of Zarephath which (in reward for her charity to Elijah) never diminished in quantity. The son of this woman, having died, was miraculously restored to life by the prophet's intercession. In the contest with Baal the issue was decided by Elijah's calling down fire from heaven, which consumed the sacrifice, laid on the altar of Yahweh. The final miracle recorded of Elijah concerns his departure from the world: not dying, in the normal fashion, he was carried up into heaven by a whirlwind. He had first told his disciple, Elisha, that such a departure would be a sign that God had blessed him (Elisha) with the same prophetic gifts as had been exercised by Elijah. 1 Kings 17.1-2 Kings 2.12; 9.36, 37; 2 Chronicles 21.12-15; Malachi 4.5; Matthew 11.14; 16.14; 17.3, 4, 10-12; 27.47-49; Mark 6.15; 8.28; 9.4, 5, 11-13; 1-5.35, 36; Luke 4.25, 26; 9.8, 19, 30-33; John 1.21, 25; Romans 11.2-4; James 5.17,18