Paragraph 5:17–18

James supported his advice to pray by giving the example of Elijah. Elijah received miracles in answer to his prayers.

5:17

As an example of powerful prayer, James used the story of the prophet Elijah. (See 1 Kings chapters 17–18.) This story was well known to James’ readers. Elijah saw how the people of his country had turned to evil, and so he prayed that God would punish them by sending no rain on their land.

5:17a

Elijah: Elijah was a prophet who lived 900 years before James. In some languages, it may be more natural to make some of this information explicit. For example:

Elijah the prophet
-or-
Elijah the prophet of long ago

was a man: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as man here means “human being.” For example:

was a human being (New Century Version)
-or-
was a mere human

just like us: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as just like us means “has the same kind of desires and feelings as we do.” The Jews thought of Elijah as an extraordinary person, so James reminded them that he was a normal human being.

Some other ways to translate this word are:

as we are (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
with a nature like ours (English Standard Version)
-or-
the same kind of person as we are (Good News Translation)

This word also occurs in Acts 14:15.

5:17b

He prayed earnestly: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as He prayed earnestly is literally “He prayed with prayer.” This double use of the word “pray” intensifies what James was saying. He meant that when Elijah prayed, he was sincere, serious, and eager to receive an answer. Use what is natural in your language to indicate this intensity of prayer. Use an idiom if that is appropriate. For example, some English idioms for this are:

He prayed hard
-or-
He prayed with his whole heart

5:17d

it did not rain on the land: The phrase on the land refers to the land of Israel. The drought that God sent did not affect the whole world, but only the land of Israel.

© 2012 by SIL International®

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.