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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Hire, Hireling
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HIRE, HIRELING.—The former is used in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] alongside of its synonym ‘wages,’ by which it has been supplanted in mod. English as in Gen_31:8 RV [Note: Revised Version.] (cf. Gen_30:18; Gen_30:32 f. with Gen_29:15, Gen_30:28 etc.). A hireling is a person ‘hired’ to work for a stipulated wage, such as a field-labourer (Mal_3:5), shepherd (Joh_10:12 f.), or mercenary soldier (Isa_16:14, cf. Jer_46:21). No imputation of unfaithfulness or dishonesty is necessarily conveyed by the term, although these ideas have now become associated with it owing to our Lord’s application of the word to an unfaithful shepherd in Joh_10:12-13.
A. R. S. Kennedy.