Deuteronomy 24:15

Summary

The verse commands that a hired worker's wages be paid on the same day, before sunset, because the worker is poor and depends on that payment. It warns that if this is not done, the worker may cry out to Yehovah, and the one who withheld payment will bear the guilt of sin.

Key words

• be.yomo — yo.M ("day", H3117G) in construct with the suffix o ("its", H9023), forming "on his day," i.e., on the day of labor.
• ta.Vo' ("it will go", H0935K) — qal imperfect, feminine subject (the sun), describing the sun's future movement toward setting.
• no.Se' et-nafshO — no.Se' ("lifting up", H5375K) is a qal participle, an ongoing action tied to naf.Sh ("desire/life", H5315L) with suffix o ("his"), literally "he is lifting up his life/desire" onto the wages.
• yik.Ra' ("he will call out", H7121G) — qal imperfect describing a potential future cry directed 'el-Yehovah ("to Yehovah", H3068G).
• ve.ha.Yah ("it will be", H1961) — sequential perfect (vav + perfect continuing the imperfect chain), marking the resulting consequence: "and it will become."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of conditions and consequences connected by the narrative/sequential vav. It opens with be.yomo ("on his day") establishing the time frame, followed by the imperfect ti.Ten ("you will pay", H5414N) governing se.kha.RO ("his wage", H7939 + suffix). The negated clause ve.lo'-ta.Vo' 'a.Layv ha.She.mesh ("and the sun will not go down on him") uses the feminine verb ta.Vo' because she.mesh ("sun", H8121) functions grammatically as feminine in this construction, giving a temporal limit for the payment.

The causal clause ki 'a.Ni hu' ("for he is poor") explains the reasoning, followed by ve.'e.Layv hu' no.se' et-naf.sho ("and to it he is lifting up his life"), where the participle no.se' frames this as the worker's continuous state of dependence — the wages are described as something the worker's naf.sh ("life/desire", H5315L) is directed toward or carried by.

The consequence section begins with ve.lo'-yik.Ra' 'a.Ley.kha 'el-Yehovah ("and he will not call out against you to Yehovah") — a negative imperfect expressing a warned-against future possibility. The final clause, ve.ha.Yah ve.kha chet' ("and it will be in you as sin"), uses the sequential perfect ha.Yah to mark the outcome that follows if the cry occurs, attaching chet' ("sin", H2399) to the addressee via the preposition be with suffix kha ("in you").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the cry as καταβοήσεται κατὰ σοῦ ("he will cry out against you") and specifies πρὸς Κύριον ("to the Lord"), matching the structure of 'el-Yehovah. The Vulgate's ne clamet contra te ad Dominum ("lest he cry out against you to the Lord") frames this clause with a purpose/prevention sense ("lest"), whereas the Hebrew ve.lo'-yik.Ra' is a simple negated imperfect without an explicit "lest" particle. The Vulgate also adds ante solis occasum ("before the setting of the sun"), aligning with the Hebrew's ve.lo'-ta.Vo' 'a.Layv ha.She.mesh, though the LXX's οὐκ ἐπιδύσεται ὁ ἥλιος follows the Hebrew more literally as a standalone negative statement rather than a subordinate temporal clause.