James Chapter 5 verse 4 Holy Bible
Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
read chapter 5 in ASV
See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies.
read chapter 5 in BBE
Behold, the wages of your labourers, who have harvested your fields, wrongfully kept back by you, cry, and the cries of those that have reaped are entered into the ears of [the] Lord of sabaoth.
read chapter 5 in DARBY
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.
read chapter 5 in KJV
read chapter 5 in WBT
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 Hosts.
read chapter 5 in WEB
lo, the reward of the workmen, of those who in-gathered your fields, which hath been fraudulently kept back by you -- doth cry out, and the exclamations of those who did reap into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth have entered;
read chapter 5 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4 accounts for the miseries that are coming upon them. Their sins are the cause. The language is modeled upon the Old Testament, and the special sin denounced is one that is expressly forbidden in the Law (see Deuteronomy 24:14, 15, "Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it: for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee;" cf. Malachi 3:5, "I will be a swift witness... against those that oppress the hireling in his wages (LXX., ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀποστεροῦντας μισθὸν μισθωτοῦ)" Later allusions to the same sin are found in Tobit 4:14; Ecclus. 34:22. Which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth. For ἀπεστερημένος of the Received Text, read ἀφυστερημένος (א, B). It is possible to join the words ἀφ ὑμῶν with κράζει, but it is more natural to take them as the A.V. with ἀφυστερημένος. Reaped... reaped (ἀμησάντων... θερισάντων); R.V., "mowed... reaped." But it would seem that the words should have been reversed, as, judging by Old Testament usage, ἀμάω is always used of corn (Leviticus 25:11; Deuteronomy 24:19; Isaiah 17:5; Isaiah 37:30; Micah 6:15); while θερίζειν is the wider word, including all "harvesting," and used of χόρτος in Psalm 128. (127.) 7; Jeremiah 9:22. Into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. These words are adopted from Isaiah 5:9, Κύριος Σαβαώθ, a Grecized form of the Hebrew יהוה צבאות, frequent in the LXX. Found in the New Testament only here and Romans 9:29 (in a quotation); elsewhere, e.g. in the Apocalypse, it is represented by παντοκράτωρ (Revelation 1:8, etc.); so also in 2 Corinthians 6:18 (equivalent to 2 Samuel 7:8).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) Behold, the hire of the labourers.--Not merely the wrong of the poor, but the wages kept back from him by the stingy master, contrary to the merciful Jewish law (Leviticus 19:13), which permitted no delay in payment whatever (comp. Jeremiah 22:13; Malachi 3:5). And the indignant remonstrance of the text is "a swift witness" also against the like-minded of this generation--whose God is self, whose religion political economy, and whose one great object in life is to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest: as if for these ignoble purposes the Lord God had given them a brain and a soul.The hire of the labourers . . . kept back by fraud, crieth (out).--A question has arisen concerning the right position of the word translated "of," or from you, in this clause; whether the withholden dues appeal "from the wronger to God," or as the Authorised version has it above, "the hire of the labourers of you kept back by fraud." The balance of opinion seems to be with the latter.Are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.--"A sublime and awful picture" is in the mind of the Apostle. The Lord of Hosts, the name by which He is called, especially by the last of the prophets, Malachi, is seated as a judge on His throne, to hear the right; the charge is laid, the guilty called, the witnesses are heard: the cries of the wronged have entered into His ears:--"The Lord of the Vineyard beholdeth afar;The arm of His fury is bared to the war:The day of His terrible wrath is at hand." . . .
