Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.
Parallel Translations
-
Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.
-
Beholde the hyre of the labourers which have reped doune youre feldes (which hyer is of you kept backe by fraude) cryeth: and the cryes of them which have reped are entred into the eares of the lorde Sabaoth.
-
Behold, the hire of ye labourers, which haue reaped your fieldes (which is of you kept backe by fraude) cryeth, and the cryes of them which haue reaped, are entred into the eares of the Lord of hostes.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (19)
Passages linked to James 5:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Leviticus 19:13 “ ‘You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. “ ‘The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
- Jeremiah 22:13 “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by injustice; who uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and doesn’t give him his hire;
- Deuteronomy 24:14-15 You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor and sets his heart on it; lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.
- Romans 9:29 As Isaiah has said before, “Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.”
- Malachi 3:5 I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Job 24:10-11 So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves. They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.
- Exodus 22:27 for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What would he sleep in? It will happen, when he cries to me, that I will hear, for I am gracious.
- Genesis 4:10 Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.
- Exodus 3:9 Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
- Job 34:28 so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.
- Psalms 9:12 For he who avenges blood remembers them. He doesn’t forget the cry of the afflicted.
- Luke 18:7 Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?
- Colossians 4:1 Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
- Exodus 2:23-24 In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
- Job 31:38-39 If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together; if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life,
- Isaiah 1:9 Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom. We would have been like Gomorrah.
- Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
- Habakkuk 2:11 For the stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it.
- Exodus 22:22-24 “You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 4 Behold, the hire. He now condemns cruelty, the…
4 Behold, the hire. He now condemns cruelty, the invariable companion of avarice. But he refers only to one kind, which, above all others, ought justly to be deemed odious. For if a humane and a just man, as Solomon says in Proverbs 12:10, regards the life of his beast, it is a monstrous barbarity, when man feels no pity towards the man whose sweat he has employed for his own benefit. Hence the Lord has strictly forbidden, in the law, the hire of the laborer to sleep with us (Deuteronomy 24:15). Besides, James does not refer to laborers in common, but, for the sake of amplifying, he mentions husbandmen and reapers. For what can be more base than that they, who supply us with bread by their labor should be pined through want? And yet this monstrous thing is common; for there are many of such a tyrannical disposition, that they think that the rest of mankind live only for their benefit alone.
But he says that this hire crieth, for whatever men retain either by fraud or by violence, of what belongs to another; it calls for vengeance as it were by a loud voice. We ought to notice what he adds, that the cries of the poor come to the ears of God, so that we may know that the wrong done to them shall not be unpunished. They, therefore, who are oppressed by the unjust ought resignedly to sustain their evils, because they will have God as their defender. And they who have the power of doing wrong ought to abstain from injustice, lest they provoke God against them, who is the protector and patron of the poor. And for this reason also he calls God the Lord of Sabaoth, or of hosts, intimating thereby his power and his might, by which he renders his judgment more dreadful.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The Lord who is more mighty than ye are,…
The Lord who is more mighty than ye are, hath heard them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have…
4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
Ver. 4. Kept back by fraud crieth] Bloodshed, Gen 4:10, unnatural lust, Gen 18:21, and oppression (whether by force or fraud), cry to God, and he will hear, for "he is gracious," Exo 22:27. Oppression is a bony sin, Amo 5:12-13.
Read full note →
" Clamitat in caelum vex sanguinis, et Sodomorum,
Vex oppressorum, et merces detenta laborum."
Lord of Sabaoth] Who hath all power in his hand, and can easily reach you.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Behold; this is either a note of demonstration, as…
Behold; this is either a note of demonstration, as Joh 1:29; q.d. The case is plain, and cannot be denied; or of excitation; q.d. Seriously consider it; or rather, of confirmation, to intimate, that the threatenings here denounced should certainly be made good upon them: see Jud 1:14.
The hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields; the wages of those by whose labour and sweat ye yourselves live and are nourished.
Read full note →
Which is of you kept back by fraud; either wholly denied them, or detained from them when due to them, contrary to the law, Lev 19:13; Deu 24:14,15. Deferring payment is a sort of defrauding, as it bereaves the creditor of the benefit of improvement; and so they are taxed here with injustice, as well as covetousness, in that they lived upon other men’s labours, and starved the poor to enrich themselves.
Crieth; viz. to God for vengeance, as such sins are said to do, which either are so openly and boldly committed, as to dare the justice of God, or so secretly, or securely, that they are like to escape the justice of men, Gen 4:10; 18:20,21. Among others, oppression of the poor is a loud crying sin, Exo 2:23; Job 24:11,12; Hab 2:9,11,12.
The Lord of sabaoth; i. e. the Lord of hosts, as having all the creatures above and below, of all sorts, ranked under him as their great Commander, whose will they are ready to execute. He mentions God by this title, not only for the encouragement of the poor oppressed, whose Patron and Protector he avows himself to be, Exo 22:23,24,27; Pr 23:11; but for terror to the powerful oppressors, who think themselves out of the reach of men’s judgment.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain The next sin which our apostle convicts the rich…
The next sin which our apostle convicts the rich of, and condemns them for, is the sin of oppression, and that of the worst sorts, even of labourers and servants; their covetousness was the cause of this oppression. There is no sin so heinous and base but covetousness may be a mother or a nurse to it: What more sordid than for the rich master to detain the wages of the poor labourer? Yet, Behold the hire of the labourers crieth: though they did not, durst not complain, yet their hire kept back did complain.
Learn hence, that as all oppression is very sinful, so especially the detaining of the labourers’ wages when their hire is delayed or denied, both are exceeding sinful; and accordingly we find oppressors in Scripture joined with the vilest of sinners, even with sorcerers, adulterers, and false swearers.
Read full note →
And to testify that God cannot want witnesses against oppressors, he tells us, their hire shall cry as well as the poor themselves: "The beam, and the stone out of the wall shall cry," Hab 2:11.
Remember we then that secret wrongs are known to God; the poor may not always know who wrongs them, but the Lord fully knows, and their wrongs and oppressions will cry against us, when they know not against whom to cry.
And note, the person gloriously described, who is the poor’s avenger; he is the Lord of Sabaoth, or the Lord of hosts, who has all power in his hand, and all creatures at his command. How bold and daring then is the oppressor to afflict the poor, who have the Lord of hosts for their avenger? Their cry is entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Behold the hire of the labourers, which have reaped…
Behold the hire of the labourers, which have reaped down your fields,.... The wages agreed for by the day, with the labourers in their fields, particularly their reapers; which one instance serves for many others; and is the rather mentioned, because reaping is a laborious work, and those who are employed in it have nothing to live upon but their hand labour; and especially because they are made use of in cutting down the corn when it is fully ripe, and in great plenty; wherefore, to detain their just wages from them argues great inhumanity and wickedness; and yet this was what was done by rich men:
which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; unto God for vengeance, as the blood of Abel did; and shows that such an evil, however privately and fraudulently it may be done, will be made public, and is a crying one:
Read full note →
and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth; that is, the Lord of hosts; of angels, and of men; of the host of heaven, and of the inhabitants of the earth; of Jews and Gentiles, and of rich and poor; and who has power to vindicate the cause of the latter against their rich oppressors, and will do it; his ears are open to their cries, he takes notice of them, and regards them, and will take vengeance on those that injure them. The reference is to Deu 24:15.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The hire of your labourers crieth - Those sins…
The hire of your labourers crieth - Those sins chiefly cry to God concerning which human laws are silent. Such are luxury, unchastity, and various kinds of injustice. The labourers themselves also cry to God, who is just coming to avenge their cause. Of sabaoth - Of hosts, or armies.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. The hire of the labourers] The law,…
Verse 4. The hire of the labourers] The law, Le 19:13, had ordered: The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning, every day's labour being paid for as soon as ended. This is more clearly stated in another law, De 24:15: At his day thou shalt give him his hire; neither shall the sun go down upon it;-lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee. And that God particularly resented this defrauding of the hireling we see from Mal 3:5: I will come near to you in judgment, and will be a swift witness against those who oppress the hireling in his wages. And on these laws and threatenings is built what we read in Synopsis Sohar, p. 100, l. 45: "When a poor man does any work in a house, the vapour proceeding from him, through the severity of his work, ascends towards heaven. Wo to his employer if he delay to pay him his wages." To this James seems particularly to allude, when he says: The cries of them who have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts; and the rabbins say, "The vapour arising from the sweat of the hard-worked labourer ascends up before God." Both images are sufficiently expressive.
The Lord of sabaoth.] St. James often conceives in Hebrew though he writes in Greek. It is well known that יהוה צבאות Yehovah tsebaoth, Lord of hosts, or Lord of armies, is a frequent appellation of God in the Old Testament; and signifies his uncontrollable power, and the infinitely numerous means he has for governing the world, and defending his followers, and punishing the wicked.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jas 5:4. Behold, the hire of the labourers —…
Jas 5:4. Behold, the hire of the labourers — The apostle alludes in this verse to Lev 19:13 : The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night: and to Deu 24:15, At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it, &c., lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee. In allusion to these passages, the apostle here mentions a two-fold cry; the cry of the hire unjustly kept back; that is, the cry of the sin against the sinner for vengeance; in which sense those sins chiefly cry to God concerning which human laws are silent; such are luxury, unchastity, and various kinds of injustice. But the cry of the labourers themselves is also here mentioned, to mark more strongly the greatness of the injustice committed. And “by representing the cries of the reapers defrauded of their hire as entering into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, that is, hosts, or armies, the apostle intimates that the great Ruler of the universe attends to the wrongs done to his creatures, and is affected by them as tender-hearted persons are affected by the cries of the miserable; and that he will, in due time, avenge them by punishing their oppressors. Let all oppressors consider this!” — Macknight.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped…
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields - In the previous verses the form of the sin which the apostle specified was that they had hoarded their property. He now states another form of their guilt, that, while doing this, they had withheld what was due from the very laborers who had cultivated their fields, and to whose labor they were indebted for what they had. The phrase “who have reaped down your fields,” is used to denote labor in general. This particular thing is specified, perhaps, because the reaping of the harvest seems to be more immediately connected with the accumulation of property. What is said here, however, will apply to all kinds of labor. It may be remarked, also, that the sin condemned here is one that may exist not only in reference to those who are hired to cultivate a farm, but to all in our employ - to day-laborers, to mechanics, to seamen, etc.
It will apply, in an eminent degree, to those who hold others in slavery, and who live by their unrequited toils. The very essence of slavery is, that the slave shall produce by his labor so much more than he receives for his own maintenance as to support the master and his family in indolence. The slave is to do the work which the master would otherwise be obliged to do; the advantage of the system is supposed to be that the master is not under a necessity of laboring at all. The amount which the slave receives is not presumed to be what is a fair equivalent for what he does, or what a freeman could be hired for; but so much less than his labor is fairly worth, as to be a source of so much gain to the master. If slaves were fairly compensated for their labor; if they received what was understood to be a just price for what they do, or what they would be willing to bargain for if they were free, the system would at once come to an end. No owner of a slave would keep him if he did not suppose that out of his unrequited toil he might make money, or might be relieved himself from the necessity of labor. He who hires a freeman to reap down his fields pays what the freeman regards as a fair equivalent for what he does; he who employs a slave does not give what the slave would regard as an equivalent, and expects that what he gives will be so much less titan an equivalent, that he may be free alike from the necessity of labor and of paying him what he has fairly earned. The very essence of slavery, therefore, is fraud; and there is nothing to which the remarks of the apostle here are more applicable than to that unjust and oppressive system.
Read full note →
Which is of you kept back by fraud - The Greek word here used is rendered defraud, in Mar 10:10; 1Co 6:7-8; 1Co 7:5; and destitute, in 1Ti 6:5. It occurs nowhere else, except in the passage before us. It means to deprive of, with the notion that that to which it is applied was due to one, or that he had a claim on it. The fraud referred to in keeping it back, may be anything by which the payment is withheld, or the claim evaded - whether it be mere neglect to pay it; or some advantage taken in making the bargain; or some evasion of the law; or mere vexatious delay; or such superior power that he to whom it is due cannot enforce the payment; or such a system that he to whom it is fairly due is supposed in the laws to have no rights, and to be incapable of suing or being sued. Any one of these things would come under the denomination of fraud.
Crieth - That is, cries out to God for punishment. The voice of this wrong goes up to heaven.
And the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth - That is, he hears them, and he will attend to their cry. Comp, Exo 22:27. They are oppressed and wronged; they have none to regard their cry on earth, and to redress their wrongs, and they go and appeal to that God who will regard their cry, and avenge them. On the phrase “Lord of sabaoth,” or Lord of hosts, for so the word sabaoth means, see the Isa 1:9 note, and Rom 9:29 note. Perhaps by the use of the word here it is implied that the God to whom they cry - the mighty Ruler of all worlds - is able to vindicate them. It may be added, that the cry of the oppressed and the wronged is going up constantly from all parts of the earth, and is always heard by God. In his own time he will come forth to vindicate the oppressed, and to punish the oppressor. It may be added, also, that if what is here said were regarded as it should be by all men, slavery, as well as other systems of wrong, would soon come to an end.
If everywhere the workman was fairly paid for his earnings; if the poor slave who cultivates the fields of the rich were properly compensated for his toil; if he received what a freeman would contract to do the work for; if there was no fraud in withholding what he earns, the system would soon cease in the earth. Slavery could not live a day if this were done. Now there is no such compensation; but the cry of oppressed millions will continue to go up to heaven, and the period must come when the system shall cease. Either the master must be brought to such a sense of right that he will be disposed to do justice, and let the oppressed go free; or God will so impoverish the lands where the system prevails as to make all men see that the system is unprofitable and ruinous as compared with free labor; or the oppressed will somehow become so acquainted with their own strength and their rights that they shall arise and assert their freedom; or under the prevalence of true religion better views will prevail, and oppressors, turned to God, shall relax the yoke of bondage; or God will so bring heavy judgments in his holy providence on the oppressors, that the system of slavery will everywhere come to an end on the earth.
Nothing is more certain than that the whole system is condemned by the passage of Scripture before us; that it is contrary to the genuine spirit of Christianity, and that the prevalence of true religion would bring it to an end. Probably all slaveholders feel that to place the Bible in the hands of slaves, and to instruct them to read it, would be inconsistent with the perpetuity of the system. Yet a system which cannot survive the most full and free circulation of the sacred Scriptures, must be founded in wrong.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Behold--calling attention to their coming doom as no vain…
Behold--calling attention to their coming doom as no vain threat.
labourers--literally "workmen."
Read full note →
of you kept back--So English Version rightly. Not as ALFORD, "crieth out from you." The "keeping back of the hire" was, on the part OF the rich, virtually an act of "fraud," because the poor laborers were not immediately paid. The phrase is therefore not, "kept back by you," but "of you"; the latter implying virtual, rather than overt, fraud. James refers to Deu 24:14-15, "At this day . . . give his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it, lest he CRY against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee." Many sins "cry" to heaven for vengeance which men tacitly take no account of, as unchastity and injustice [BENGEL]. Sins peculiarly offensive to God are said to "cry" to Him. The rich ought to have given freely to the poor; their not doing so was sin. A still greater sin was their not paying their debts. Their greatest sin was not paying them to the poor, whose wages is their all.
cries of them--a double cry; both that of the hire abstractly, and that of the laborers hired.
the Lord of sabaoth--here only in the New Testament. In Rom 9:29 it is a quotation. It is suited to the Jewish tone of the Epistle. It reminds the rich who think the poor have no protector, that the Lord of the whole hosts in heaven and earth is the guardian and avenger of the latter. He is identical with the "coming Lord" Jesus (Jam 5:7).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 4. Hire of the labourers—The rich men were great…
4. Hire of the labourers—The rich men were great landholders, who had, perhaps, thousands of tenants or serfs, kept to a barely living recompense. Their rightful wages were withheld, and misery and starvation were the result to the helpless toiler.
Crieth—Like the blood of Abel against his murderer, (Gen_4:10;) like the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, (Gen_18:20;) like the groaning of Israel against the oppression of Pharaoh, Exo_2:23-24.
Read full note →
Lord of Sabaoth— Especially are these predictions fulfilled in a nation like our own, which boasted of its Christianity and its freedom, while holding a stolen race in oppression. We have lately found the national crime an antecedent to a national day of slaughter.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. Behold, the hire of the labourers …] The…
4. Behold, the hire of the labourers …] The evil was one of old standing in Judæa. The law had condemned those who kept back the wages of the hired labourer even for a single night (Lev_19:13). Jeremiah (Jer_22:13) had uttered a woe against him “that useth his neighbour’s service without wages.” Malachi (Jas_3:5) had spoken of the swift judgment that should come on those who “oppressed the hireling in his wages.” The grasping avarice that characterized the latter days of Judaism shewed itself in this form of oppression among others.
are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth] The divine Name thus used was pre-eminently characteristic of tie language of the Prophets. It does not appear at all in the Pentateuch, nor in Joshua, Judges, or Ruth; and probably took its rise in the Schools of the Prophets, founded by Samuel. Whether its primary meaning was that Jehovah was the God of all the armies of earth, the God, as we say, of battles, or that He ruled over the armies of the stars of heaven, or over the unseen hosts of angels, or was wide enough, as seems probable, to include all three ideas, is a question which cannot be very definitely answered. It is characteristic of St James that he gives the Hebrew form of the word, as also St Paul does in citing Isa_1:9 in Rom_9:29. For the most part the LXX. renders it by “Almighty” (Pantokratôr), and in this form it appears in Rev_4:8, where “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty” answers to “Lord God of sabaoth,” or “of hosts” in Isa_6:3. This title is specially characteristic of Malachi, in whom it occurs not less than 23 times.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (4) Behold, the hire of the labourers.—Not merely the…
(4) Behold, the hire of the labourers.—Not merely the wrong of the poor, but the wages kept back from him by the niggardly master, contrary to the merciful Jewish law (Lev_19:13), which permitted no delay in payment whatever (comp. Jer_22:13; Mal_3:5). And the indignant remonstrance of the text is “a swift witness” also against the like-minded of this generation—whose God is self, whose religion political economy, and whose one great object in life is to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest: as if for these ignoble purposes the Lord God had given them a brain and a soul.
The hire of the labourers . . . kept back by fraud, crieth (out).—A question has arisen concerning the right position of the word translated “of,” or from you, in this clause; whether the withholden dues appeal “from the wronger to God,” or as the Authorised version has it above, “the hire of the labourers of you kept back by fraud.” The balance of opinion seems to be with the latter.
Read full note →
Are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.—“A sublime and awful picture” is in the mind of the Apostle. The Lord of Hosts, the name by which He is called, especially by the last of the prophets, Malachi, is seated as a judge on His throne, to hear the right; the charge is laid, the guilty called, the witnesses are heard: the cries of the wronged have entered into His ears:—
“The Lord of the Vineyard beholdeth afar;
The arm of His fury is bared to the war:
The day of His terrible wrath is at hand.”
It is the reflection of our own Bede that St. James thus speaks (comp. Rom_9:29) of the Lord of Sabaoth, or armies, to terrify those who suppose that the poor have no helpers. (Comp. Psa_72:12.) God’s majestic title is proclaimed, we may believe, by an Hebrew to Hebrews, for a warning against their darling sin of covetousness, and in hope that the vision of Isaiah (Isa_6:1-4) would move them to consider who and what the Lord of Hosts, of angels, of cherubim, of seraphim, might be “when He maketh inquisition for blood,” forgetting not the complaint of the poor” (Psa_9:12).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Ver. 4 accounts for the miseries that are coming…
Ver. 4 accounts for the miseries that are coming upon them. Their sins are the cause. The language is modeled upon the Old Testament, and the special sin denounced is one that is expressly forbidden in the Law. see Deu_24:14, Deu_24:15, "Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it: for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee;" cf." Mal_3:5, "I will be a swift witness against those that oppress the hireling in his wages (LXX, ejpi touv ajposterountav misqon misqwtou) Later allusions to the same sin are found in RAPC Tob 4:14; Ecc 34:22. Which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth. For ajpesterhmenov of the Received Text, read ajfusterhmenov (a, B). It is possible to join the words ajf uJmwn with krazei, but it is more natural to take them as the A.V with ajfusterhmenov. Reaped... reaped (ajmhsantwn qerisantwn); R.V, "mowed reaped." But it would seem that the words should have been reversed, as, judging by Old Testament usage, ajmaw is always used of Lev_25:11; Deu_24:19; Isa_17:5; Mic_6:15 while qerizein is the wider word, including all "harvesting," and used of cortov in Psalm 128. (127.) 7; Jer_9:22. Into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. These words are adoptedriov Isa_5:9, Ku Sabawq, a Grecized form of the Hebrew twabx hwhy, frequent in the LXX Found in the New Testament only here and; Rom_9:29 (in a quotation) elsewhere, e.g. in the Apocalypse, it is represented by pantokratwr; (Rev_1:8, etc.) so also in 2Co_6:18. (equivalent to 2Sa_7:8)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 4. Behold, the hire of the laborers. These rich…
4. Behold, the hire of the laborers. These rich men are censured for two sins; viz., the improper use of wealth, and the sinful acquisition of wealth. The Bible is everywhere the friend and protector of the laborer. To keep back the hire of the laborer is denounced everywhere. See Lev. 19:13; Deut. 24:14; Jer. 22:13; Mal. 3:5; Job 24:6. The cries of them. Of the defrauded laborers. God will avenge them.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain the Lord of sabaoth
the Lord of sabaoth
i.e. Jehovah of hosts.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
James continues to warn rich people about thier focus on pleasure and riches.
Read full note →
the pay of the laborers is crying out—the pay that you have withheld from those who harvested your fields
The money that should have been paid is spoken of as a person who is shouting because of the injustice done to him. AT: "the fact that you did not pay those you hired to work in your fields shows that you have done wrong" (See: Personification)
the cries of the harvesters have gone into the ears of the Lord of hosts
The shouts of the harvesters are spoken of as if they could be heard in heaven. AT: "the Lord of hosts has heard the cries of the harvesters" (See: Metaphor)
into the ears of the Lord of hosts
God is spoken of as if he had ears as humans have. (See: Metaphor)
You have fattened your hearts for a day of slaughter
Here people are viewed as if they were cattle, luxuriously fed on grain so they would become fattened to be slaughtered for a feast. However, no one will feast at the time of judgment. AT: "Your greed has only prepared you for harsh eternal judgment" (See: Metaphor)
your hearts
The "heart" was considered to be the center of human desire, and here stands for the entire person. (See: Metonymy)
You have condemned ... the righteous person
This is probably not "condemned" in the legal sense of a judge passing a sentence of death on a criminal. Instead, it probably refers to the wicked and powerful people who decide to mistreat the poor until they die.
the righteous person. He does not
"the people who do what is right. They do not." Here "the righteous person" refers to righteous people in general and not to a specific person. AT: "righteous people. They do not" (See: Generic Noun Phrases)
resist you
"oppose you"
translationWords
labor
harvest
Yahweh of hosts
heart
condemn
righteous
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 5:4 These rich people (5:1) were exploitive landowners. Like…
5:4 These rich people (5:1) were exploitive landowners. Like those in 2:6 who oppressed and dragged Christians into court, they were exploiting the day laborers whose work was to harvest their fields. • cries . . . have reached the ears of the Lord: God hears the prayers of the oppressed (see Deut 24:14-15). Even while the laborers are still suffering, the Lord has heard (see Exod 3:7). • the Lord of Heaven’s Armies (1 Sam 17:45; Ps 103:20-21; Rom 9:29): This title emphasizes God’s power to act when the oppressed cannot.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.