Reference: Hire, Hireling
Hastings
The former is used in AV alongside of its synonym 'wages,' by which it has been supplanted in mod. English as in Ge 31:8 RV (cf. Ge 30:18,32 f. with Ge 29:15; 30:28 etc.). A hireling is a person 'hired' to work for a stipulated wage, such as a field-labourer (Mal 3:5), shepherd (Joh 10:12 f.), or mercenary soldier (Isa 16:14, cf. Jer 46:21). No imputation of unfaithfulness or dishonesty is necessarily conveyed by the term, although these ideas have now become associated with it owing to our Lord's application of the word to an unfaithful shepherd in Joh 10:12-13.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Laban said to Jacob: You should not work for me for nothing just because you are my relative. How much pay do you want?
Leah said: God has given me my reward, because I gave my slave to my husband. So she named him Issachar.
Let me go through all of your flocks today and take every speckled and spotted sheep, every black lamb, and every spotted and speckled goat. They will be my wages.
When Laban said, 'The speckled goats shall be your wages,' all the flocks produced speckled young. When he said, 'The striped goats shall be your wages,' all the flocks produced striped young.
Now Jehovah says: Moab's honor will be despised within three years. I will count them like workers count the years left of their contracts. In spite of their great number, the survivors will be very few and powerless.
Egypt's hired soldiers are like fattened calves. They will turn and run away together. They will not stand their ground. The day of destruction is coming. At that time they will be punished.'
I will approach you people for judgment! I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, the adulterers and those acting fraudulently with the wages of the worker, the widow and the fatherless. I will be a speedy witness against those who swear falsely and take advantage of the stranger, and do not show me reverence, said Jehovah of Hosts.
The hired man owns no sheep. He is not the shepherd. He sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep. The wolf snatches them, and scatters them.
The hired man owns no sheep. He is not the shepherd. He sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep. The wolf snatches them, and scatters them. He leaves because he is a hired man and does not care for the sheep.