This verse contains a third plea for patience, using the example of the prophets. The indication that this is a third plea is seen in the use of the address brethren, meaning fellow believers, for the third time in the paragraph. The prophets are used as an example of suffering and patience. “Prophets” are primarily not people who predict the future, as the rendering in some languages suggests. They are basically spokesmen for God and interpreters of God’s will, and the term is often expressed as “persons who speak [or, proclaim] God’s message.” Here the term refers to the Old Testament prophets. Not only did they often fail to gain a hearing for their message (Isa 6.9-10), they were also frequently the targets of persecution (Jer 20.8; Matt 5.12). A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark, page 7, provides a list of helpful examples on the translation of “prophet” from a number of languages; for example, “one who speaks for God,” “one who speaks the voice of God,” “God’s sent-word person,” and others. The word example is used of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet (John 13.15) and of Jesus’ suffering (1 Peter 2.21). In some languages it may be desirable to use a word like “model” or “pattern” for example, as Revised English Bible has done. And in certain languages this clause may be translated as “you must act as they did” or “you must behave as they did.”

The word suffering in suffering and patience is used only here in the New Testament. It basically means “hardship” (so New American Bible) suffered at the hand of others and therefore may be rendered as “ill-treatment” (New English Bible/ Revised English Bible) or “adversity” (so R.P. Martin). The pair of nouns can be taken as a hendiadys, that is, two terms expressing one idea, and may be rendered in a single phrase such as “patient endurance under suffering” (Good News Translation), “patience under ill-treatment” (Revised English Bible), or “suffering patiently endured” (Goodspeed).

The prophets are people who spoke in the name of the Lord. Here the Lord refers to God. By making this statement James seems interested in conveying the thought that these spokesmen for God were subject to suffering because of their service to him, not because of their wrongdoing. And despite their suffering the prophets remained patient. To speak in the name of the Lord means to speak as a representative of the one who sent them, indicating that their messages bear the authority of God (compare Contemporary English Version “spoke for the Lord”). In languages where prophets will be expressed as “people who proclaim God’s message,” we may render the clause the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as “those people who proclaimed the Lord’s message,” it being understood that they spoke in his name.

In translating this verse it may be desirable to structure the sentence somewhat differently. In some languages we may have to take the prophets as the primary focus, and so they are best identified at the beginning of the sentence; for example:
• My brothers and sisters, remember the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Take them as examples of patient endurance under suffering.
• My fellow believers, the prophets proclaimed the message on behalf of the Lord. Take them as examples of people who endured suffering patiently.
• My fellow believers, do you remember those people who proclaimed God’s message long ago? They were patient even when they had to suffer. You should be patient like this too.

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 .