Deuteronomy 24:14

Payment for workers

14 Don't take advantage of poor or needy workers, whether they are fellow Israelites or immigrants who live in your land or your cities.

Deuteronomy 24:14 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 24:14

Thou shall not oppress an hired servant
That is hired by the day, as appears by ( Deuteronomy 24:15 ) ; though the law may include such as are hired by the week, or month, or year; neither of whom are to be oppressed by any means, and chiefly by detaining their wages; so the Jerusalem Targum explains the phrase,

``ye shall not detain by force the hire of the hired servant;''

nor by fraud, as in ( James 5:4 ) ;

[that is] poor and needy;
and so cannot bear the lest oppression of this kind, nor to have his wages detained from him any time, and much less wholly to be defrauded of them:

[whether he be] of thy brethren;
an Israelite, and so a brother both by nation and religion:

or of thy strangers that [are] in thy land, within thy gates;
Jarchi interprets this, both of proselytes of righteousness, and of proselytes of the gate; which latter are plainly described by this clause, and the former must be included; for, if proselytes of the gate are not to be oppressed, much less proselytes of righteousness, who were in all respects as Israelites, the same law was to them both. Jarchi says, the phrase "in thy land" is intended to comprehend the hire of beasts, and of vessels; and these in the Misnah ^F15 are said to be comprehended in this precept, as well as the hire of man.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 Bava Metzia, c. 9. sect. 12.

Deuteronomy 24:14 In-Context

12 Moreover, if the person is poor, you are not allowed to sleep in their pawned coat.

13 Instead, be certain to give the pawned coat back by sunset so they can sleep in their own coat. They will bless you, and you will be considered righteous before the LORD your God.

14 Don't take advantage of poor or needy workers, whether they are fellow Israelites or immigrants who live in your land or your cities.

15 Pay them their salary the same day, before the sun sets, because they are poor, and their very life depends on that pay, and so they don't cry out against you to the LORD. That would make you guilty.

16 Parents shouldn't be executed because of what their children have done; neither should children be executed because of what their parents have done. Each person should be executed for their own guilty acts.