SEV Biblia, Chapter 5:13
¿Est alguno entre vosotros afligido? Haga oracin. ¿Est alguno alegre? Cante.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - James 5:13
Verse 13. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray] The Jews taught that the meaning of the ordinance, Lev. xiii. 45, which required the leper to cry, Unclean! unclean! was, "that thus making known his calamity, the people might be led to offer up prayers to God in his behalf," Sota, page 685, ed. Wagens. They taught also, that when any sickness or affliction entered a family, they should go to the wise men, and implore their prayers. Bava bathra, fol. 116, 1. In Nedarim, fol. 40, 1, we have this relation: "Rabba, as often as he fell sick, forbade his domestics to mention it for the first day; if he did not then begin to get well, he told his family to go and publish it in the highways, that they who hated him might rejoice, and they that loved him might intercede with God for him." Is any merry? let him sing psalms.] These are all general but very useful directions. It is natural for a man to sing when he is cheerful and happy.
Now no subject can be more noble than that which is Divine: and as God alone is the author of all that good which makes a man happy, then his praise should be the subject of the song of him who is merry. But where persons rejoice in iniquity, and not in the truth, God and sacred things can never be the subject of their song.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 13. Is any among you afflicted ? etc.] As the people of God generally are; they are commonly a poor, and an afflicted people; at least there are many among them that are so, and many are their afflictions: those whom Christ loves, as he did Lazarus, are not free from sicknesses and diseases; and these are rather signs of love than arguments against it; and when this is the case of any of the saints, what is to be done? let him pray ; to God that can save him; in the name of Christ; under the influence of the Spirit; believing in the word of promise. Times of afflictions are proper times for prayer; there is then more especially need of it; and God sometimes lays his afflicting hand upon his people, when they have been negligent of their duty, and he has not heard of them for some time, in order to bring them near to him, to seek his face, pay him a visit, and pour out a prayer before him; (see Psalm 50:15). Is any merry ? in good heart and spirit, in a good frame of mind, as well as in prosperous circumstances, in soul, body and estate: let him sing psalms ; let him not only be inwardly joyful, as he should be in prosperity, and be thankful to God for his many mercies, temporal and spiritual, he enjoys; but let him express it vocally, and melodiously, by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs: not that these are the only persons that are to sing psalms, or this the only time, any more than that afflicted persons are the only ones that are to pray, or the time of affliction the only time of prayer; but as affliction more especially calls for prayer, so spiritual joy, and rejoicing in prosperous seasons, for singing of psalms: weeping, and singing of psalms, were thought, by the Jews, inconsistent.
Kimchi, on the title of the third psalm, observes, that their Rabbins say, that when David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, he wept; and if he wept, why is this called a psalm? and if a psalm, hkb hml , why did he weep?
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 12-18 - The sin of swearing is condemned; but how many make light of commo profane swearing! Such swearing expressly throws contempt upon God' name and authority. This sin brings neither gain, nor pleasure, no reputation, but is showing enmity to God without occasion and withou advantage It shows a man to be an enemy to God, however he pretends to call himself by his name, or sometimes joins in acts of worship. But the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. In day of affliction nothing is more seasonable than prayer. The spirit i then most humble, and the heart is broken and tender. It is necessar to exercise faith and hope under afflictions; and prayer is the appointed means for obtaining and increasing these graces. Observe that the saving of the sick is not ascribed to the anointing with oil but to prayer. In a time of sickness it is not cold and formal praye that is effectual, but the prayer of faith. The great thing we shoul beg of God for ourselves and others in the time of sickness is, the pardon of sin. Let nothing be done to encourage any to delay, under the mistaken fancy that a confession, a prayer, a minister's absolution an exhortation, or the sacrament, will set all right at last, where the duties of a godly life have been disregarded. To acknowledge our fault to each other, will tend greatly to peace and brotherly love. And when a righteous person, a true believer, justified in Christ, and by his grace walking before God in holy obedience, presents an effectua fervent prayer, wrought in his heart by the power of the Holy Spirit raising holy affections and believing expectations and so leadin earnestly to plead the promises of God at his mercy-seat, it avail much. The power of prayer is proved from the history of Elijah. I prayer we must not look to the merit of man, but to the grace of God It is not enough to say a prayer, but we must pray in prayer. Thought must be fixed, desires must be firm and ardent, and graces exercised This instance of the power of prayer, encourages every Christian to be earnest in prayer. God never says to any of the seed of Jacob, Seek m face in vain. Where there may not be so much of miracle in God' answering our prayers, yet there may be as much of grace.
Greek Textus Receptus
κακοπαθει 2553 5719 τις 5100 εν 1722 υμιν 5213 προσευχεσθω 4336 5737 ευθυμει 2114 5719 τις 5100 ψαλλετω 5567 5720
Vincent's NT Word Studies
13. Is afflicted (kakopaqei). See on the kindred word kakopaqeia, suffering, ver. 10. Only here and 2 Tim. ii. 3, 9; iv. 5.
Let him sing psalms (yalletw). The word means, primarily, to pluck or twitch. Hence of the sharp twang on a bowstring or harp-string, and so to play upon a stringed instrument. Our word psalm, derived from this, is, properly, a tune played upon a stringed instrument. The verb, however, is used in the New Testament of singing praise generally. See 1 Corinthians xiv. 15; Rom. xv. 9.
