Leviticus 19:13, commentary and pictures

Thou shalt not cheat or rob a neighbor, but must pay a hired worker promptly without keeping his wages overnight until morning. It belongs to God's law calling His people to holiness, practical love, justice and fair treatment of one another, forbidding oppression of brethren in any way. Keeping back earned wages overnight is oppression, injustice, robbery and dishonesty, and a violation of the worker's rights and of God's commandments. Employers must therefore pay fairly and promptly for honest hours, effort, responsibility and value, without underpaying faithful labor, exacting every cent, or taking advantage of the poor and less shrewd to gain wealth. The same standard requires unbending integrity in all buying and selling as under God's eye, doing to others as one would be done to, without hiding defects, exaggerating benefits, exploiting weakness or distress, or running into debt and neglecting to pay what is justly owed.

Meaning and Setting

Thou shalt not defraud or cheat a neighbor and shalt not rob him, and the wages of him that is hired shall not be kept overnight but shall be paid promptly without delay, by the next morning, in effect by the end of the day. Practical love forbids such defrauding and robbing and requires paying the hired worker's wages without keeping them overnight until morning, presenting honest dealing and prompt payment as the direction for how people are to treat one another. The command is part of Israel's instruction not to oppress others and to treat neighbors justly, part of God's laws calling His people to holiness and to fair treatment of others. Being holy means practicing justice in dealing with others, meaning not to oppress brethren in any way, and fair and prompt payment for labor is an obligation of God's law, so that withholding earned wages is oppression and injustice.

The whole chapter was spoken by Jesus Christ Himself from the cloudy pillar as a lesson given for the benefit of future generations. Its teachings present the same high standard as His teachings in the New Testament. It calls those who have received God's great gift in Jesus to love one another as Christ has loved them.

Holiness like God's holiness requires practicing godliness in every circumstance, first as a blessing to members of one's own family learned at home, then to fellow men and to all who need mercy and relief, not only to those of one's own church. Loving one's neighbor as oneself means striving daily against selfishness and self-centeredness and cultivating the attributes of Jesus, which are the attributes of God. Church membership does not save, for only individual union with Christ as personal Saviour and growing up to the full stature of Jesus Christ is accepted and approved of God.

Justice for Hired Workers

Keeping a hired worker's earned pay overnight instead of paying promptly is oppression and injustice, and it is robbery and dishonesty that violates the worker's rights and breaks God's law and commandments. Taking another person's due for selfish gain in this way is robbery and a transgression of the commandments, including exploiting study and inventions for one's own benefit. Oppressing laborers by holding back or seizing their wages violates their rights.

Gaining wealth by taking advantage of others, trampling on their rights, and oppressing the poor and hired workers by withholding their wages stands condemned. Greed drives such exploitation of those who are poorer or less shrewd in order to increase wealth, even to the point of bringing them to beggary.

Employers are required to pay fairly and promptly rather than withholding what is due or taking advantage of workers. Fair compensation is to reflect honest hours, effort, responsibility, and the value of the work, so that essential and faithful labor is not underpaid and workers are not expected to serve without compensation. Differences in pay can be just when responsibilities and work differ, yet employers must not be niggardly or exact every possible cent, and the requirement gives no justification for exorbitant pay or for treating service for God as a mercenary undertaking.

The command forbids defrauding or robbing a neighbor by keeping wages overnight instead of paying by morning, and it governs dealings with a blind man so that no one may exploit him, take advantage of his efforts to support himself, or seek personal gain at his expense. Exploiting a blind man's study and inventions for selfish benefit is robbery and a violation of God's commandments. Such injustice brings God's curse.

The same principle requires prompt and honest payment for hard-earned work such as gathering harvest, and it applies to ministers and other workers in God's cause. Withholding a worker's wages is robbery and dishonesty. Paying ministers and other workers less than their just dues on the plea that the treasury lacks money is as criminal in God's sight as keeping back the wages of anyone employed in regular work.

Honesty in Business Life

The verse sets God's strict standard of honesty in all dealings with others, forbidding defrauding a neighbor or robbing him and requiring that a hired worker's wages not be held overnight but paid promptly. That standard means doing to others as one would be done to in the same position, especially in business for gain. In buying and selling it means acting with the realization that the eye of God is upon the transaction, with unbending integrity, a trustworthy word, and underlying principles that do not scheme or take advantage of a neighbor.

Applied to buying and selling, especially real estate, it forbids keeping back unfavorable facts, exaggerating benefits, dealing falsely, and lying. It requires accepting only a fair equivalent for what is sold and frankly telling of defects even against one's own pecuniary interests. It forbids taking advantage of occasions and circumstances to make money by setting forth in a strong light the benefits of what is sold, such as asserting that property will rise or double in value. It forbids using another's weakness, incompetency, or distressing circumstances to fill one's own purse or add to one's own land. Those who practice such methods must cut loose from them to be healthful branches of the church.

Beyond fair exchange, one who has money he does not need is to use it to relieve the necessities of a less fortunate brother in order to help and bless him. Cheating one's neighbor also includes running into debt for food for one's family through idleness and then failing to be careful to pay those honest debts. It includes leaving for another place instead and showing indifference toward paying what is justly owed. Those who profess to be Bible Christians must show strict integrity in paying their debts promptly, because failure to do so brings reproach upon God's cause and puts all believers in danger of being regarded as unreliable.