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.
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.
- KJV 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.
- 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.
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 19:13“‘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.
- Jer 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;
- Deut 24:14–15You 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.
- Rom 9:29As 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.”
- Mal 3:5I 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 24:10–11So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
- Exod 22:27for 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.
- Exod 3:9Now, 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 34:28so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.
- Gen 4:10Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.
- Luke 18:7Won’t God avenge his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?
- Col 4:1Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
- Ps 9:12For he who avenges blood remembers them. He doesn’t forget the cry of the afflicted.
- Isa 5:7For 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.
- Exod 2:23–24In 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.
- Hab 2:11For the stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it.
- Isa 1:9Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.
- Job 31:38–39If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;
- Exod 22:22–24“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child.
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Original language
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