Topic
Hireling
8 passages cited, from 3 classic reference works.
These works date from 1896–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Job 7:1Easton · ISBE
Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
- Malachi 3:5ISBE · Nave Not to be oppressed
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…
- Leviticus 19:13Easton
¶ 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.
- Job 14:6Easton
Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.
- Isaiah 16:14ISBE
But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble.
- Matthew 20:1–14Easton
For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about…
- Mark 1:20Easton
And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.
- John 10:12ISBE
But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 5 references
A labourer employed on hire for a limited time (Job 7:1; 14:6; Mark 1:20). His wages were paid as soon as his work was over (Lev. 19:13). In the time of our Lord a day’s wage was a “penny” (q.v.) i.e., a Roman denarius (Matt. 20:1-14).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 5 references
hir'-ling (sakhir): Occurs only 6 times in the Old Testament, and uniformly means a laborer for a wage. In Job 7:1 f there is reference to the hireling's anxiety for the close of the day. In Isa 16:14 and 21:16 the length of the years of a hireling is referred to, probably because of the accuracy with which they were determined by the employer and the employee. Malachi (3:5) speaks of the oppression of the hireling in his wages, probably by the smallness of the wage or by in some way defrauding him of part of it.
In the New Testament the word "hireling" (misthotos) occurs only in Joh 10:12 f, where his neglect of the sheep is contrasted unfavorably with the care and courage of the shepherd who owns the sheep, who leads them to pasture and lays down his life for their protection from danger and death.
William Joseph McGlothlin
In the topical indexes
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.