For the sun rises with its scorching heat: James continues to describe in more detail the disappearance of the wild flower. The connective For here has the force of “once” (so New English Bible, Revised English Bible) in the sense of “at the time when,” so the clause may be rendered as “For once [or, when] the sun rises….” It will be noted that all four verbs in this verse, rises, withers, falls, perishes, are in the aorist tense in Greek in a usage that normally indicates things that generally or customarily happen, so most translations in English render them in the present tense. The expression the sun rises refers most probably to the sun at its peak rather than just after coming up over the horizon. Some languages refer to the sun “coming out”; for example, “For when the sun comes out and is at its full height [or, is high in the sky] ….”
The word rendered scorching heat can refer to two things. It may mean the blistering east wind known as the sirocco. It is a phenomenon very common in the eastern Mediterranean region, referring to the burning east wind from the desert blowing day and night. When it blows it is like hot air blowing out of an oven, and it can dry up and kill flowers, herbs, and grass in a few hours. It comes with such devastating effect that it is used figuratively of judgment in Hos 13.15. This sense is adopted by some translations; for example, “scorching wind” (American Standard Version, Moffatt, Phillips), and “the sirocco blows” (Barclay). However, the sirocco has nothing to do with the rising of the sun; it blows continually for three to four days during the transition periods of spring and autumn, no matter whether the sun is out or not. For this reason most commentators and translators have taken the Greek word as having to do with “heat”; for example, “scorching heat” (New American Bible, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible), “blazing heat” (Good News Translation), or “burning heat” (Contemporary English Version). We may also translate the clause as “For when the sun rises high in the sky and sends out its scorching heat [or, heat that burns] ….”
The next three verbs describe the effect of the scorching sun; it withers the grass, makes its flower fall, and destroys its beauty. The word grass is the same as the one used in “the flower of the grass” in verse 10. It is only natural that the translations using “plant” there also use “plant” here (Good News Translation); those that have “field” there also have “field” here (Revised English Bible). The verb rendered withers can also mean “dries up” (so Goodspeed, Knox, New American Bible), describing the process of drying out. Since it follows words like “sun” and “scorching heat,” Good News Translation translates it as “burns,” and Revised English Bible “parches.” The verb rendered falls is sometimes translated as “withers” (Goodspeed, Revised English Bible) or “droops” (New American Bible), perhaps under the influence of the Hebrew word used in Isa 40.7. It basically means “falls out” or “falls off” (Good News Translation), describing the dropping of the petals (compare the New English Bible rendering, “its petals fall”). In some languages it is more natural to express withers the grass; its flower falls as “the grass dries up and the flower withers,” with “withers” suggesting the sense of eventual falling off.
The clause its beauty perishes, literally “the beauty of its face perishes,” is sometimes rendered as “what is lovely to look at” (New English Bible/Revised English Bible) or “the beauty of its appearance” (New American Bible). The addition of “its face” in the Greek text represents a Hebrew idiomatic expression meaning nothing more than “its beauty,” and these words are therefore left untranslated by most translations. The verb perishes can be rendered “is destroyed” (Good News Translation; so also New International Version), “is gone” (Goodspeed), or “vanishes” (New American Bible). It means that none of its beauty is left, and therefore it “is lost for ever” (Revised English Bible).
The point of the comparison with a flower is summed up this way: just as the flower goes quickly, So will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits, quickly and completely. So here means “in the same way” (Good News Translation, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New International Version), or “That is how…” (Contemporary English Version). However, picking up the force of the flower vanishing so suddenly and so certainly, it can also be rendered “just this quickly” (Dibelius) or “just as surely” (Phillips).
The rich is best taken here as an indefinite singular of class, referring to any rich person in general, irrespective of whether this person is a Christian or not. The verb fade away is very picturesque; it can be used of the withering or wasting away of plants as well as the death of people. It is safe to assume that here James has death in mind. Some translations have expressed this directly; for example, “fade and die” (Goodspeed), and “perish” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). The word rendered pursuits is often used in the literal sense of “walking” or “journeying” (compare the rendering by Barclay, “a journey to decay”), but it is probably best to take it metaphorically as referring to daily conduct or activity, and it can be rendered as “enterprises” (La Sainte Bible: Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) or “business” (Good News Translation; also New International Version, Revised English Bible). This final clause, then, may also be expressed as “as he conducts his daily affairs,” or “as he does the things he is accustomed to doing every day.”
An alternative translation model for this verse may be:
• When the sun is at its height, its blazing heat burns [or, withers] the plant and its flower falls off, and its beauty is lost [or, destroyed]. In the same way the rich person will die [or, disappear] while he is conducting his daily affairs.
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 .