Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
Leviticus is a book of laws given to the ancient Israelites as they built a new society after escaping slavery in Egypt. These laws weren't only religious rituals — they were the blueprint for a just community. This verse addresses two economic wrongs: defrauding a neighbor (cheating someone out of what they're rightfully owed) and specifically withholding a hired worker's wages overnight. In the ancient Near East, day laborers were often desperately poor, earning just enough each day to buy food for their families that evening. Holding back a worker's pay until the next morning wasn't a minor administrative inconvenience — it could mean children going to bed hungry. God's law made this a matter of justice, not just good manners.
God, you care about the worker waiting on their paycheck and the neighbor cheated in a deal. Help me take justice this seriously — not just in big public ways, but in the ordinary transactions of my daily life. Show me where I'm holding back what I owe, and give me the integrity to make it right. Amen.
Three thousand years before labor law existed, God told his people: pay the worker today. Not when it's convenient. Not after the weekend. Today. The wage that feels small to you might be the meal someone's family is waiting on tonight. In the ancient world, and in much of the world still, that was literally true. There's something uncomfortable about how specific God gets in Leviticus. We often want our faith to stay in the spiritual lane — prayers, worship, private morality. But God keeps walking it into the marketplace, into payroll decisions, into the gap between what someone is owed and what they actually receive. This verse doesn't only apply to employers. It's asking a broader question: where in your life are you holding back what someone is owed? It might be wages. It might also be an apology long overdue, credit you haven't given, or help you keep meaning to offer. The principle doesn't change — don't let what someone is rightfully owed sit in your pocket while they wait.
Why do you think God included something as practical as wage payment in the same collection of laws as commands about worship and holiness? What does that pairing tell you about what God considers sacred?
Have you ever been on the receiving end of someone withholding what they owed you — financially, relationally, or in terms of recognition? What did that experience feel like?
In what ways do economic systems today still allow people to be defrauded or underpaid, and how do you think about your own responsibility within those systems?
Beyond wages, where might you be holding back something another person is rightfully owed — an apology, credit for their work, or a simple acknowledgment you've been slow to give?
Is there a specific person or situation where this verse is calling you to take practical action this week? What is the most honest answer to that question?
And the second is like, namely this , Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
Mark 12:31
Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
Jeremiah 22:13
Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates:
Deuteronomy 24:14
Divers weights , and divers measures , both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.
Proverbs 20:10
Thou shalt not steal.
Exodus 20:15
And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:5
For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
1 Timothy 5:18
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
James 5:4
'You shall not oppress or exploit your neighbor, nor rob him. You shall not withhold the wages of a hired man overnight until morning.
AMP
“You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
ESV
'You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob [him]. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning.
NASB
“‘Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. “‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight.
NIV
‘You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning.
NKJV
“Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. “Do not make your hired workers wait until the next day to receive their pay.
NLT
"Don't exploit your friend or rob him. "Don't hold back the wages of a hired hand overnight.
MSG