Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Wherefore--as your evil is of yourselves, but your good from God. However, the oldest manuscripts and versions read thus: "YE KNOW IT (so Ephesians 5:5; Hebrews 12:17), my beloved brethren; BUT (consequently) let every man be swift to hear," that is, docile in receiving "the word of truth" (James 1:18, James 1:21). The true method of hearing is treated in James 1:21-27, and Jam. 2:1-26.
slow to speak-- (Proverbs 10:19; Proverbs 17:27-28; Ecclesiastes 5:2). A good way of escaping one kind of temptation arising from ourselves (James 1:13). Slow to speak authoritatively as a master or teacher of others (compare James 3:1): a common Jewish fault: slow also to speak such hasty things of God, as in James 1:13. Two ears are given to us, the rabbis observe, but only one tongue: the ears are open and exposed, whereas the tongue is walled in behind the teeth.
slow to wrath-- (James 3:13-14; James 4:5). Slow in becoming heated by debate: another Jewish fault (Romans 2:8), to which much speaking tends. TITTMANN thinks not so much "wrath" is meant, as an indignant feeling of fretfulness under the calamities to which the whole of human life is exposed; this accords with the "divers temptations" in James 1:2. Hastiness of temper hinders hearing God's word; so Naaman, 2 Kings 5:11; Luke 4:28.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Proverbs 12:16
Proverbs 18:21
Proverbs 21:28
James 1:21
James 2:12
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