James 1:8

δίψυχος : Although this word is not found in either the Septuagint or elsewhere in the N.T. (excepting in James 4:8) its occurrence is not rare otherwise; Clement of Rome, quoting what he calls ὁ προφητικὸς λόγος, says: ταλαίπωροί εἰσιν οἱ δίψυχοι, οἱ διστάζοντες τῇ καρδίᾳ … (Resch., Agrapha, p. 325 [2nd ed.]); the word occurs a number of times in Hermas, e.g., Mand., ix. 1, 5, 6, 7; xi. 13; so too in Barn., xix. 5, and in Did., iv. 4, as well as in other ancient Christian writings and in Philo. The frame of mind of the ἀνὴρ δίψυχος is equivalent to a “double heart,” see Sir 1:25, μὴ προσέλθῃς αὐτῷ (i.e., the fear of the Lord) ἐν καρδίᾳ δισσῇ; this is precisely the equivalent of the Hebrew לֵב וָלֵב in Psalms 12:3, which the Septuagint unfortunately translates literally, ἐν καρδίᾳ καὶ ἐν καρδίᾳ. In Enoch xci. 4 we have: “Draw not nigh to uprightness with a double heart, and associate not with those of a double heart”; as the Greek version of this work is not extant it is impossible to say for certain how “double heart” was rendered. On the construction here see Mayor. ἀκατάστατος ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτοῦ : this is severe, and reads as if the writer had some particular person in mind. The double-hearted man is certainly one who is quite unreliable. Ἀκατάστατος, which occurs only here and in James 3:8 (but see critical note) in the N.T., is found in the Septuagint, though very rarely; in Isaiah 54:11 we have Ταπεινὴ καὶ ἀκατάστατος οὐ παρεκλήθης, where the Hebrew for ἀκατάστ. (סֹעֲרָה) means “storm-tossed”. In the verse before us the word seems to mean unreliability, the man who does not trust God cannot be trusted by men; this probably is what must have been in the mind of the writer. ἐν πάσαις, etc.: a Hebrew expression for the course of a man's life in the sense of his “manner of life” (ἀναστροφή, see James 3:13) see Proverbs 3:1, ἐν πάσαις ὁδοῖς σου γνώριζε αὐτήν (Hebrew αὐτόν), ἵνα ὀρθοτομῇ τὰς ὁδούς σου. The sense of the expression is certainly different from ἐν ταῖς πορείαις αὐτοῦ in James 1:11 which refers to the days of a man's life.