James 5:4

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

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.

The hire

The cries

General references

1 Corinthians 6:8

Bible References

The hire

Thou shalt not beguile thy neighbour with cavillations, neither rob him violently, neither shall the workman's labour abide with thee until the morning.

Thou shalt not defraud a hired servant that is needy and poor, whether he be of thy brethren or a stranger that is in thy land within thy cities.

insomuch that they let him go naked without clothing, and take way the sheaf of the hungry.

But if cause be that my land cry against me, or that the furrows thereof make any complaint;

As for the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts, it is the house of Israel, and whole Judah his fair planting. Of these he looked for equity, but see there is wrong; for righteousness, lo, it is but misery.

Woe worth him, that buildeth his house with unrighteousness, and his parlors with the good that he hath gotten by violence: which never recompenceth his neighbour's labour, nor payeth him his hire.

so that the very stones of the wall shall cry out of it, and the timber that lieth betwixt the joints of the building shall answer.

I will come and punish you, and I myself will be a swift witness against the witches, against the adulterers, against false swearers: yea, and against those that wrongfully keep back the hireling's duty, which vex the widows and the fatherless, and oppress the stranger, and fear not me, sayeth the LORD of Hosts.

Ye masters do unto your servants that which is just and equal, seeing ye know that ye have also a master in heaven.

The cries

And he said, "What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood cryeth unto me out of the earth.

And it chanced, in process of time, that the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel sighed by the reason of labour, and cried.

Now therefore behold, the complaint of the children of Israel is come unto me and I have also seen the oppression, wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.

Ye shall trouble no widow nor fatherless child:

Give him his hire the same day, and let not the sun go down thereon. For he is needy and therewith sustaineth his life, lest he cry against thee unto the LORD and it be sin unto thee.

Insomuch that they have caused the voice of the poor to come unto him, and now he heareth the complaint of such as are in necessity.

And why? For when he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them, and forgetteth not the complaint of the poor.

And shall not God avenge his elect, which cry night and day unto him? Yea though he defer them:

General references

"'When thou sellest ought unto thy neighbour or buyest of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another:

The poor are fain to labour in their oil mills, yea and to tread in their wine presses, and yet to suffer thirst.

For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of robbery.

Should I not punish these things, sayeth the LORD? Should I not be avenged of all such people as these be?"

Thus will I bring the melody of thy songs, and the voice of thy minstrelsy to an end, so that they shall no more be heard.

Likewise also, as it chanced, in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built.

Nay, ye yourselves do wrong, and rob: and that the brethren.