James 5:4

James 5:4. Now follows a statement of the sins of the rich on account of which they are punished. Three sins are mentioned injustice, luxury, and oppression. The first sin mentioned is injustice. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud. Some connect the words ‘of you' with ‘crieth' ‘crieth from you;' but our version is admissible, and the more simple. In the law of Moses, it was expressly forbidden to keep back the wages of hired labourers: ‘Thou shaft not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him; the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning' (Leviticus 19:13). And again: ‘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' (Deuteronomy 24:14-15).

crieth: that is, for assistance to the defrauded, or rather for vengeance on the defrauders; like as Abel's blood crieth unto God (Genesis 4:10). Compare with this the words of Malachi, which some suppose St. James had here in view: ‘I will be a swift witness against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, saith the Lord of hosts' (Malachi 3:5).

and the cries of them that have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. An Old Testament title of God, generally translated in our version, ‘The Lord of hosts.' [1] It is only used here in the New Testament, and is highly appropriate, as it was an expression familiar to the Jewish Christians. In Romans 9:29, it occurs as a quotation from the Prophecies of Isaiah. It is expressive of the power of God; as, being the Lord of hosts, He has all agencies at His command, and therefore is able to respond to the cries of the oppressed.

[1] The Septuagint generally render the phrase by ‘Almighty:' compare Revelation 4:8.