Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
Wherefore - as your evil is of yourselves, but your good from God. A B C, Vulgate, read х iste (G1492) for hooste (G5620)] 'YE KNOW IT (so Ephesians 5:5; Hebrews 12:17); BUT let every man be ['Aleph ('): istoo (G1492), "let every man know it, and consequently be] swift to hear," the word of truth' (James 1:18; James 1:21). The true method of hearing is treated in James 1:21-27 and James 2:1-26. Slow to speak (Proverbs 10:19; Proverbs 17:27-28; Ecclesiastes 5:2) - a good way of escaping one temptation arising from ourselves (James 1:13). Slow to speak authoritatively as a 'master' of others (cf. James 3:1): a Jewish fault: slow to speak hasty things of God, as James 1:13. Two ears are given to us, the Rabbis observe, but only one tongue: the ears are exposed, 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, Not 'wrath' is meant, but indignant fretfulness under the calamities to which human life is exposed: title accords with "divers temptations." James 1:2. Hastiness of temper hinders bearing Gods word: so Naaman, 2 Kings 5:11; Luke 4:28.