But you have dishonored the poor man: James goes on to accuse his readers, pointing out that their action of showing partiality to the rich is in conflict with the purpose of God, who chooses the poor as his special concern. He goes on to say that it is an irony that the rich are actually the ones who exploit them.

But you is a strong contrast. The particle rendered as But indicates that what the readers are doing is in contrast to God’s attitude. The pronoun you in Greek is in emphatic position, in contrast to God; God chose the poor, but you, the Christians, the dear brothers and sisters (verse 5), have dishonored him. In order to bring out the emphatic force of you in the original, we may render But you in English as “You, on the other hand” (New Jerusalem Bible).

The verb dishonored has the sense of an outward expression of contempt, of treating someone with disrespect. It is rendered in various ways; for example, “ye have despised” (King James Version), “you have humiliated” (Translator’s New Testament, Revised English Bible), “you have insulted” (New English Bible, New International Version). In cultures where the concept of “face” is important, we may express dishonored as “you have made the poor lose face,” or “you have taken away the face of the poor.” The aorist tense in Greek and the reference to the poor here have convinced some scholars that the author is referring to the incident mentioned in verses 2-4 rather than speaking in general terms. In this case the force is best brought out in English as a perfect, as a number of translations have done. However, it is more likely that James is referring to the general action or inclination of the Christians in showing partiality. If this is so, it is best to use the present tense in English; for example, “but you dishonor the poor” (Good News Translation; so also Barclay), “but you humiliate the poor” (Goodspeed), “and you insult the poor” (Moffatt), “you mistreat the poor” (Contemporary English Version), “you make the poor lose face” and so on.

James goes on to list three charges against the rich expressed in two rhetorical questions. First, literally “Is it not the rich who oppress you, and they who drag you into court?” Most translations, for stylistic reasons, have split this sentence into two; for example, “Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court?” (New Revised Standard Version). The verb oppress is often used in the Septuagint to describe the rich and powerful exploiting the poor (Amos 4.1), the foreigners, widows, and orphans (Ezek 22.7, 29). In the New Testament the underlying Greek word is used only here and in Acts 10.38, where it refers to the oppression by the devil. The verb means literally “to exercise power over,” or in a bad sense “to lord it over” (so Moffatt and New Jerusalem Bible), suggesting an abuse of power. Barclay‘s rendering of the first charge is graphic and interesting: “the rich treat you as tyrants treat their slaves.” Contemporary English Version translates “But isn’t it the rich who boss you around…?” Other ways to express the phrase oppress you are “treat you badly,” “be cruel to you,” or “show you no mercy.” In view of its social and economic sense in this context, it can also be rendered as “the rich are exactly the kind of people who cheat and oppress you!” (Today’s Chinese Version). The verb oppress, as well as the verb drag, is in the present tense, giving the sense of habitual action. Phillips tries to bring this out by rendering the sentence as “Isn’t it the rich who are always trying to rule your lives…?”

The second charge is that they, that is, the very same rich people, are the ones who drag you into court. It is very likely that this means the rich are applying legal pressures to the poor Christians over such things as wages, debts, rents, and so on, and does not necessarily refer to physical oppression or persecution of the Christians. The verb drag is a strong term. It is used in Acts 21.30 of people dragging Paul out of the Temple. It is often used of hauling someone into court (so New American Bible “haul you off to court”). The phrase may also be rendered as “they are the ones who force you to go before the judges.” In cultures where “chiefs” do the judging, we may say, for example, “they are the ones who illegally take you before the chiefs to judge you.” The court here may be the local synagogue or church court, or even the Jewish sanhedrin. In any case it will not affect the translation if we use the general term “court” without trying to state what kind of court it is.

Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .