Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
The hire (o misqov). Old word for wages (Matthew 20:8).
Labourers (ergatwn). Any one who works (ergazomai), especially agricultural workers (Matthew 9:37).
Who mowed (twn amhsantwn). Genitive plural of the articular first aorist active participle of amaw (from ama, together), old verb, to gather together, to reap, here only in N.T.
Fields (xwrav). Estates or farms (Luke 12:16).
Which is of you kept back by fraud (o afusterhmenov af umwn). Perfect passive articular participle of afusterew, late compound (simplex usterew common as Matthew 19:20), to be behindhand from, to fail of, to cause to withdraw, to defraud. Pitiful picture of earned wages kept back by rich Jews, old problem of capital and labour that is with us yet in acute form.
The cries (ai boai). Old word from which boaw comes (Matthew 3:3), here only in N.T. The stolen money "cries out" (krazei), the workers cry out for vengeance.
That reaped (twn qerisantwn). Genitive plural of the articular participle first aorist active of qerizw (old verb from qerov, summer, Matthew 24:32), to reap, to harvest while summer allows (Matthew 6:26).
Have entered (eiselhluqan). Perfect active third person plural indicative of eiserxomai, old and common compound, to go or come into. This late form is by analogy of the aorist for the usual form in -asi.
Of the Lord of Sabaoth (Kuriou Sabawq). "Of the Lord of Hosts," quotation from Isaiah 5:9 as in Romans 9:29, transliterating the Hebrew word for "Hosts," an expression for the omnipotence of God like Pantokratwr (Revelation 4:8). God hears the cries of the oppressed workmen even if the employers are deaf.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing James 5:4:
Luke 6:24
James 4:6
James 5:1
James 5:7
Revelation 6:15
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