Text -- James 5:16-20 (NET)

5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. 5:17 Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months! 5:18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest. 5:19 My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, 5:20 he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path will save that person’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jam 5:16

¹ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”

NET Notes: Jam 5:17

¹ tn Although it is certainly true that Elijah was a “man,” here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") has been translated as “human being” because the emphasis in context is not on Elijah’s masculine gender, but on the common humanity he shared with the author and the readers.

² tn Grk “he prayed with prayer” (using a Hebrew idiom to show intensity).

NET Notes: Jam 5:18

¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events.

NET Notes: Jam 5:19

¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

NET Notes: Jam 5:20

¹ tn Grk “from the error of his way” (using the same root as the verb “to wander, to err” in the first part of the verse).

² tn Grk “his soul”; the referent (the sinner mentioned at the beginning of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.