The poverty of hired laborers is reflected in the Bible, and there are humane regulations protecting their rights. Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matt 20.1-16) is told against this general background, and in it we see that the workers expect their pay at the end of the day. In the Old Testament the importance of paying laborers at the end of the day’s work is emphasized (Lev 19.13; Deut 24.14, 15), and employers who exploit their workers are often rebuked (Jer 22.13; Mal 3.5; Amos 8.4). The purpose of the regulations was to protect the rights of the poor laborers; they needed the wage to meet the immediate needs of their families every day; there is no way to feed the family the next day without it. There is an additional reason why immediate payment is to the advantage of the workers. If the payment is not made immediately, it becomes easy for employers to defraud the workers, as poor workers dare not demand justice for fear that doing so may deprive them of the opportunity to work. It is against this background that we can begin to appreciate the significance of James’ charge against the rich landowners. In this verse James levels his second charge against the rich: they withhold wages from the laborers. The rich are obviously the wealthy farmers who own much land.
Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields … cry out: James is fond of using the rhetorical interjection Behold to call attention to important sayings and examples (3.4, “Look,” 5, “[See] how great”; 5.4, 7, 9, 11). As a device to call attention, this interjection, though sometimes left untranslated, may also be rendered as “Why” (Goodspeed), “Listen” (New Revised Standard Version), “Look” (New International Version), or “Pay attention.” In a number of Asian and African languages, where particles such as this are an essential part of discourse, translators should use an appropriate particle here as an attention-getter.
The subject of the long sentence is the wages, and the verb is cry out. James obviously uses this picturesque language not only for dramatic effect, but also to highlight the plight of the exploited laborers. The verb cry out is used of Abel’s blood crying out to God from the ground for justice and vengeance (Gen 4.10; compare also Exo 2.23; Rev 6.9-10). To cry out is to cry aloud against someone or something, often in protest against injustice. It means “to complain loudly” (compare “complaints,” Good News Translation). The verb is in the present tense here and can be taken as a continual crying out. A number of translations (including New International Version and Revised English Bible) have chosen to render it as a present progressive, “are crying out.” Wages may be expressed as “daily pay” or “money for a day’s work.” In some languages it is impossible to say the wages … cry out. If so translators may have to say simply “the workers … cry out”; so Good News Translation has “Listen to their complaints!”
The laborers are hired farm workers; they are defined as the ones who mowed your fields. The word mowed is used only here in the New Testament and can mean “to reap” (similarly Goodspeed, Barclay) or “to harvest” (similarly New American Bible). In many languages a term with a more general meaning such as “work in your fields” will be an adequate translation. The word rendered fields refers to a large area of farmland and so may be rendered as “farms” or “ranches.” The crying aloud is against the rich, and this may be brought out; for example, “cry out against you” (New International Version) or “complain against you.”
Which you have kept back by fraud: what the rich did with the wages was that they held them back. There is a textual problem related to the compound verb rendered as kept back by fraud. The text adopted by the UBS Greek Testament, more widely attested, means “to rob” or “to defraud,” that is to take something from someone by means of deception. In addition to the Revised Standard Version rendering (so also New Revised Standard Version), some translations have tried to bring out the sense by emphasizing one component of the meaning; for example, “you have cheated of their pay” (Living Bible), “The wages you have fraudulently withheld” (Jewish New Testament). We can even render it more forcefully as “you have fraudulently robbed of their wages.” An alternative text, favored by some, is weaker in meaning. It means simply “to withhold” (similarly Goodspeed, New American Standard Bible) or “to keep back” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible). The renderings like “have not paid” (Good News Translation) and “failed to pay” (New International Version) appear also to have followed this reading. The rich landowners have not simply delayed the payment, but have actually not paid at all. On the whole the first option is preferable. An alternative translation model for the first part of verse 4 is:
• You have deceived the men who work in your fields by refusing to pay them their daily wage [or, money]. Pay attention to their loud complaints.
The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts: the cries of the poor have not gone unheard. The Greek noun translated cries is used only here in the New Testament. This second use of “cries” (though a different word than the verb used in the previous clause) serves to again highlight the plight of the exploited laborers and to bring home the fact that the rich people hoarded their wealth and fraudulently stole what was due to the poor laborers. Here again the cries are loud protests (compare “The clamorous protests,” Barclay). In translation it is desirable to retain “cries” if we have rendered the verb in the previous statement as “cry out.” This will make the translation more forceful, as it is obviously intended to be. It is possible to render the pair of words in English as “cry out … outcry” (similarly Revised English Bible). We may also express this as “loud cries of complaint” if the word “complaints” has been used in the previous sentence. The cries are those of the harvesters, the people who gather in crops for the landowners, and therefore there is no excuse not to give them the wages due them.
The cries … have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts: this expression is a human way of saying that God has heard the cries, and the intended sense is that he will listen and respond to his people (compare the Contemporary English Version rendering: “… has surely heard”). God’s ears are always open to the poor, and this means that his judgment will be on those who oppress them (Psa 17.1-6; 18.6). The title the Lord of hosts is a common Old Testament expression but is used in the New Testament only here and in Rom 9.29. It is rendered as “the Lord of sabaoth” by King James Version, the word “sabaoth” being a transliteration of a Hebrew word that means “armies.” The word “armies” can refer to earthly armies (compare 1 Sam 17.45), but more often it refers to heavenly armies, namely angels and stars (Psa 103.19-22). The title depicts God as the powerful commander of the great army. Reflecting the translation in the Septuagint, it may be rendered as “the Lord Almighty” (so Good News Translation, New International Version). Most likely James picks up this title from Isaiah 5, where it is used four times, and where it is related to God’s judgment upon Israelites for their oppression of the poor. James’ intention here is to convey the fact that for God to hear the outcry of the poor is for him to bring judgment to their rich exploiters. The Lord of hosts is a title for God, and so this may be expressed as Good News Translation has done “God, the Lord Almighty”; or if the use of Lord will confuse readers who normally associate this title with Christ, we may translate, for example, “God who is all powerful,” or “God who is the strongest of all.”
In some languages translators will run into difficulty translating a long sentence with several relative clauses like the ones we have here. It may be necessary therefore to restructure the verse into several shorter sentences; for example:
• You have fraudulently stolen the wages of the laborers who harvested your farms. Listen! They are crying out with complaints. The outcries of the harvesters have reached the ears of God the Lord Almighty.
It may be desirable in some languages to break down the first sentence into two: “The laborers harvested your farms. You have cheated them by stealing their daily wages.” The last sentence may be also rendered “God who is all powerful has heard the outcries of those who harvest your crops [or, grain].”
Quoted with permission from Loh, I-Jin and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from James. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .