Albert Barnes Commentary James 5:4

"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." — James 5:4 (ASV)

Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields. In the previous verses, the form of the sin that 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 labourers who had cultivated their fields, and to whose labour they were indebted for what they had.

The phrase, who have reaped down your fields, is used to denote labour in general. This particular thing is specified, perhaps, because the reaping of the harvest seems to be more immediately connected with the accumulation of property. What is said here, however, will apply to all kinds of labour.

It may be remarked, also, that the sin condemned here is one that may exist not only in reference to those who are hired to cultivate a farm, but to all in our employ, to day-labourers, to mechanics, to seamen, and so on. It will apply, particularly, to those who hold others in slavery, and who live by their unrequited toils.

The very essence of slavery is that the slave produces by his labour so much more than he receives for his own maintenance as to support the master and his family in indolence. The slave is to do the work which the master would otherwise be obliged to do; the advantage of the system is supposed to be that the master is not under a necessity of labouring at all.

The amount which the slave receives is not presumed to be what is a fair equivalent for what he does, or what a freeman could be hired for; but so much less than his labour is fairly worth, as to be a source of so much gain to the master.

If slaves were fairly compensated for their labour; if they received what was understood to be a just price for what they do, or what they would be willing to bargain for if they were free, the system would at once come to an end. No owner of a slave would keep him if he did not suppose that out of his unrequited toil he might make money, or might be relieved himself from the necessity of labour. The one who hires a freeman to reap down his fields pays what the freeman regards as a fair equivalent for what he does; the one who employs a slave does not give what the slave would regard as an equivalent, and expects that what he gives will be so much less than an equivalent, that he may be free from the necessity of labour as well as from paying him what he has fairly earned.

The very essence of slavery, therefore, is fraud; and there is nothing to which the remarks of the apostle here are more applicable than to that unjust and oppressive system. Which is of you kept back by fraud. The Greek word here used (apostereō) is rendered defraud, in Mark 10:10; 1 Corinthians 6:7–8; 1 Corinthians 7:5; and destitute, in 1 Timothy 6:5.

It occurs nowhere else, except in the present passage. It means to deprive someone of something, with the implication that what is referred to was due to that person, or that they had a claim on it. The fraud referred to in keeping it back may be anything by which the payment is withheld or the claim evaded—whether it be mere neglect to pay it; or some advantage taken in making the bargain; or some evasion of the law; or mere vexatious delay; or such superior power that the one to whom it is due cannot enforce the payment; or such a system that the one to whom it is fairly due is supposed in the laws to have no rights and to be incapable of suing or being sued. Any one of these things would be classified as fraud.

Crieth. That is, cries out to God for punishment. The voice of this wrong goes up to heaven.

And the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. That is, He hears them, and He will attend to their cry. . They are oppressed and wronged; they have none to regard their cry on earth, and to redress their wrongs, and they go and appeal to that God who will regard their cry, and avenge them. On the phrase “Lord of sabaoth,” or Lord of hosts (for so the word sabaoth means), see Barnes on Isaiah 1:9 and Romans 9:29.

Perhaps by the use of the word here it is implied that the God to whom they cry—the mighty Ruler of all worlds—is able to vindicate them. It may be added, that the cry of the oppressed and the wronged is going up constantly from all parts of the earth, and is always heard by God.

In His own time He will come forth to vindicate the oppressed and to punish the oppressor. It may be added, also, that if what is said here were regarded as it should be by all people, slavery, as well as other systems of wrong, would soon come to an end.

If everywhere the worker were fairly paid for their earnings; if the poor slave who cultivates the fields of the rich were properly compensated for their toil; if they received what a free person would contract to do the work for; if there were no fraud in withholding what they earn, the system would soon cease in the earth.

Slavery could not live a day if this were done. Currently, there is no such compensation; but the cry of oppressed millions will continue to go up to heaven, and the time must come when the system will cease. Either the master must be brought to such a sense of right that he will be disposed to do justice and let the oppressed go free; or God will so impoverish the lands where the system prevails as to make all people see that the system is unprofitable and ruinous compared with free labour; or the oppressed will somehow become so acquainted with their own strength and their rights that they will arise and assert their freedom; or under the prevalence of true religion, better views will prevail, and oppressors, turned to God, will relax the yoke of bondage; or God will so bring heavy judgments in His holy providence on the oppressors, that the system of slavery will everywhere come to an end on the earth.

Nothing is more certain than that the whole system is condemned by the passage of Scripture before us; that it is contrary to the genuine spirit of Christianity, and that the prevalence of true religion would bring it to an end. Probably all slaveholders feel that to place the Bible in the hands of slaves, and to instruct them to read it, would be inconsistent with the perpetuity of the system. Yet a system which cannot survive the most full and free circulation of the sacred Scriptures must be founded in wrong.