Bible Dictionary
Hireling
A hireling is a laborer employed for wages and a limited period. Scripture commands that such workers be paid promptly and contrasts the hireling’s self-interest with the faithful care of a shepherd.
Definition
A hireling is a laborer employed for wages, ordinarily for a limited period. The term emphasizes hired service rather than permanent possession or personal ownership. A worker’s wages were to be paid promptly when the work was completed.
Biblical Usage
Scripture refers to the hireling’s longing for the end of the working day and to the measured duration of his service. It condemns oppression or defrauding of hired workers. Jesus contrasts the hireling who abandons sheep with the shepherd who owns them and protects them.
Historical Background
In the time of Jesus, a day’s wage was a Roman denarius, called a penny in the supplied material. The period of a hireling’s service was treated as precisely determined by employer and worker.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
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 (ISBE)
<p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>William Joseph McGlothlin</p>