Deuteronomy 24:14

14 Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.

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 If he is a poor man, you must not go to sleep with the security in your possession;

13 be sure to return it to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you, and this will be credited to you as righteousness before the LORD your God.

14 Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.

15 You 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.

16 Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.