WAGES (wa'jez).
1. Usually some form of Heb. (saw-kar', Gen. xxxi:8; Exod. ii:o; Ezek. xxix:18, 19); else where "hire," "reward," etc...
2. Illas-koh'reth (Heb. Gen. xxix:15; xxxi:41; Ruth 11:12, "reward").
3. Peh-ool-law' (Heb. Lev. xix:13; Ps. cix :20, "reward").
4. Two Greek words are thus rendered: AIls thos' (µcoe6s, John iv:36, elsewhere " reward," or "hire"); op-so'nee-on (6to,51nov, Luke iii:14; 2 Cor. xi :8; Luke vi :23, "reward"). (McC. & Str. Cyc.) The words as above rendered in the A. V. by this term signify primarily 'to purchase,' to ob tain by some consideration on the part of the pur chaser; thence to obtain on the part of the seller some consideration for something given or done, and hence to hire, to pay, or receive wages. Wages, then, according to the earliest usages of mankind, are a return made by a purchaser for something of value—specifically for work per formed. And thus labor is recognized as prop erty, and wages as the price paid or obtained in exchange for such property. In this relation there is obviously nothing improper or humiliating on the side either of the buyer or the seller. They have each a certain thing which the other wants, and in the exchange which they in consequence make, both parties are alike served. In these few words lies the theory, and also the justification of all service. The entire commerce of life is barter. In hire, then, there is nothing improper or discreditable. It is only a hireling, that is,
a mercenary, a mean, sordid spirit, that is wrong. So long as a human being has anything to give which another human being wants, so long has he something of value in the great market of life; and whatever that something may be, provided it does not contribute to evil passions or evil deeds, he is a truly respectable capitalist, and a useful member of the social community. The Scriptural usage in applying the term translated `wages' to sacred subjects—thus the Almighty himself says to Abraham (Gen. xv :1), 'I am thy exceeding great reward'—tends to confirm these views, and to suggest the observance of caution in the em ployment of the words 'hire' and 'hireling,' which have acquired an offensive meaning by no means originally inherent in themselves, or in the He brew words for which they stand (Gen. xxx :18, 33).
The earliest mention of wages is a payment in kind, not in money (Gen. xxix :15, 20; xxxi :7, 8, 41). The rate of wages is mentioned (Matt. xx :2) as about sixteen cents. In earlier times it was doubtless lower. The Mosaic law required a daily payment of wages (Lev. xix :13; Deut. xxiv :14, 15), and to withhold them was wrong (Jer. xxii :13 ; Mal. iii :5; James v :4).
J. R. B.