You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure: this is James’ third charge against the rich people. It has to do with their luxurious life style. Reflecting more closely the structure of the original, which has two verbs, what James says here is “You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure” (New American Standard Bible). This is in sharp contrast to the hardship and exploitation they have imposed on the poor. They enjoy luxurious life at the expense of the poor. James does not directly condemn the life style of the rich as evil, but in the context his charge clearly is that the rich engage in self-indulgence without caring for others, especially the poor.
The first verb, have lived … in luxury, is used only here in the New Testament, but a related form is used in 2 Peter 2.13 to describe the false teachers seeking pleasure in broad daylight. Barclay paraphrases it as “the luxury which saps a man’s moral fiber.” Because of the reference to fattened your hearts in the final sentence of this verse, it is possible that luxury may refer to rich and expensive foods. This idea is expressed in the Contemporary English Version rendering, “you have thought only of filling your own stomachs.”
The second verb, have lived … in pleasure, means literally “to give yourself to pleasure” and is used elsewhere in the New Testament only in 1 Tim 5.6, where it describes the self-indulgent widow who “lives for pleasure” as being dead even though she is alive. It definitely has a negative sense and therefore may be rendered as “have lived in wanton pleasure” (similarly New American Standard Bible, Barclay) or “have lived in self-indulgence” (similarly New International Version). Other possible renderings are “lost yourselves in pleasures” or “wasted your time engaging in pleasurable activities.” If we feel that the two verbs have almost the same meaning, it is possible to take them together as referring to a single action, as New English Bible and Revised English Bible have done, thus “have lived … in wanton luxury.”
Alternative translation models for the first part of verse 5 are:
• While you have lived in this world you have thought only of enjoying the most expensive things and having a good time.
• … you have thought only of filling your own stomachs and having a good time (Contemporary English Version).
The expression on the earth may be understood as the actual piece of land the rich owned and perhaps lived on (compare “You have lived off the land,” R. P. Martin, and “you have lived on the land,” Revised English Bible). But it is perhaps best understood in the sense of “in this world” (Barclay) or “here on earth” (Good News Translation) in contrast to the world to come, similar to the contrast of “then” and “now” as well as “here” and “there” in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16.19-31, especially verse 25). Understood in this sense James may here be giving the rich a warning that their luxurious life style here on earth is storing up misery for them there in eternity.
You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter: this reinforces the line of understanding James has just given. The meaning of the expression “to fatten your heart” can be taken to mean “to indulge your passion,” as the heart is the seat of a person’s emotions, pleasures, and passions (compare Isa 6.10; Psa 104.15). However, it seems simpler to take “heart” as part of a person, but in this case representing the whole person. The reason for using the heart instead of some other part of the body seems to be that it is considered the seat of feelings and emotions, relating to the satisfaction of feasting and fattening. And so “to fatten your heart” is simply “to make yourself fat” (compare Good News Translation). What James does here is to accuse the rich people of having fattened themselves up by living lavishly every day.
It is more difficult to determine what James means by in a day of slaughter. It may be taken in various ways.
(1) It is sometimes taken literally in the sense that “you rich people have made yourselves fat by eating sumptuously on the day of slaughtering the animal”—when there is a plentiful supply of meat. What is slaughtered here is the animal.
(2) The phrase is sometimes understood as referring to the time when the poor suffer, because they have been defrauded of their wages and left to starve (verse 4) and condemned to death (verse 6). What is slaughtered here is the poor (understood as “the righteous poor”). This is apparently the interpretation intended in the New Jerusalem Bible rendering.
(3) The phrase is also understood to mean the time of the judgment, which is coming very soon. In the Old Testament the day of God’s judgment is often spoken of as a day of the slaughter of his enemies (compare Isa 34.6; Jer 46.10; Ezek 21.15). On this interpretation James is saying that the rich are like calves and sheep continuing to feed and get fat even to the very day of their slaughter—the day of judgment (compare Jer 25.34). In this case what is to be slaughtered is the rich people, and the day of slaughter is in the future, although in the biblical understanding it is very close. For this reason the expression in a day of slaughter is often rendered as “for the day of slaughter” (so Good News Translation, New American Bible). The Revised English Bible rendering also favors this interpretation: “… gorging yourselves—and that on the day appointed for your slaughter.”
On the whole this last understanding fits the context best and therefore is to be preferred. In some languages translators must make the metaphor clearer by saying, for example, “you have made yourselves fat and you will be punished just as fat cattle are led to be slaughtered” or “But now you are like fat cattle who are being led to be slaughtered [or, for people to slaughter them].”
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 .