Berean Standard Bible
James 5:4
4Look, 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.
James 5:4 in other versions
- King James Version (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.
- New International Version (NIV)Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
- New King James Version (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.
Context of James 5:4
2Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. 3Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and consume your flesh like fire. You have hoarded treasure in the last days. 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. 5You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. 6You have condemned and murdered the righteous, who did not resist you.
Read all of James 5James 5:4 word by word
ἰδοὺ ὁ μισθὸς τῶν ἐργατῶν τῶν ἀμησάντων τὰς χώρας ὑμῶν ὁ ἀπεστερημένος ἀφ᾽ ὑμῶν κράζει καὶ αἱ βοαὶ τῶν θερισάντων εἰς τὰ ὦτα κυρίου σαβαὼθ εἰσεληλύθασιν.Read the interlinear
- Lookἰδούidou · look!G2400
- theὁho hē to · the/this/whoG3588
- wagesμισθόςmisthos · wageG3408
- you withheldἀποστερέωapostereō · to defraudG650
- workmenἐργάτηςergatēs · workerG2040
- mowedἀμάωamaō · to mowG270
- yourσύsu · youG4771
- fieldsχώραchōra · countryG5561
- are crying outκράζωkrazō · to cryG2896
- againstἀπόapo · away fromG575
- ·καίkai · andG2532
- criesβοήboē · outcryG995
- harvestersθερίζωtheridō · to reapG2325
- have reachedεἰσέρχομαιeiserchomai · to enterG1525
- have reachedεἰςeis · towardG1519
- earsοὖςous · earG3775
- of the Lordκύριοςkurios · lord: GodG2962
- of Hostsσαβαώθsabaōth · hostsG4519
Cross-references for James 5:4
- Leviticus 19:13You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
- Deuteronomy 24:14Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.
- Job 24:10Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
- Job 31:38if my land cries out against me and its furrows weep together,
- Isaiah 5:7For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.
- Jeremiah 22:13“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
- Habakkuk 2:11For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will echo it from the woodwork.
- Malachi 3:5“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- Colossians 4:1Masters, supply your slaves with what is right and fair, since you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
- Genesis 4:10“What have you done?” replied the LORD. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
- Exodus 2:23After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.
- Exodus 3:9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen how severely the Egyptians are oppressing them.
- Exodus 22:22You must not mistreat any widow or orphan.
- Deuteronomy 24:15You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
- Job 34:28They caused the cry of the poor to come before Him, and He heard the outcry of the afflicted.
- Psalms 9:12For the Avenger of bloodshed remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
Commentaries on James 5:4
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 4The hire of the laborers - The law, Leviticus 19:13, had ordered: The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning, every day's labor being paid for as soon as ended. This is more clearly stated in another law, Deuteronomy 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…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 4Behold, 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…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 4These wealthy individuals were landowners who exploited their workers (5:1). They are like those in 2:6 who oppressed and took Christians to court. These rich people exploited the day laborers who harvested their fields. cries … have reached the ears of the Lord: God hears the prayers of the oppressed (see Deuteronomy 24:14–15). Even while the laborers are still suffering, the Lord has heard them (see Exodus 3:7). the Lord of Hosts (1 Samuel 17:45; Psalm…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 44. Behold--calling attention to their coming doom as no vain threat. labourers--literally "workmen." 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…Read the comment
Topics related to James 5:4
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on James 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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