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.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- BSB Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
- NKJV Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
- NASB Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of armies.
- NLT For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The withheld wages of exploited laborers cry out to God, who hears them. The Lord of Armies takes the side of the defrauded poor.
Overview
James indicts the rich for defrauding workers, whose unpaid wages cry to heaven, recalling the law's protection of laborers (Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:14-15). The title Lord of Armies (Lord of Hosts) underscores God's power to vindicate the oppressed. This assures the mistreated that God hears their cries and warns oppressors that he will hold them accountable.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Lev 19:13Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
- Jer 22:13Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
- Deut 24:14–15Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates:
- Rom 9:29And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
- Mal 3:5And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
- Job 24:10–11They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;
- Exod 22:27For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.
- Exod 3:9Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
- Job 34:28So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the afflicted.
- Gen 4:10And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
- Luke 18:7And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
- Col 4:1Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.
- Ps 9:12When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.
- Isa 5:7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
- Exod 2:23–24And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
- Hab 2:11For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
- Isa 1:9Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
- Job 31:38–39If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
- Exod 22:22–24Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.
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Original language
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