wages from god

8/13/2019 Wages From God

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Wages from God: TheDynamics

of a Biblical Metaphor

TZVINOVICK

University ofNotre Dame

Notre Dame, IN46556

THEMETAPHORICAL TREATMENTof gain fromGod as hireling'swagesoccursin two related but distinct contexts in the Hebrew Bible. The first usage is exem-

plified in 2 Chr 15:7, wherethe prophetAzariahencouragesAsa and his people toundertakethe task ofrootingoutidolatry:"Be strong, and letnot yourhandsflag,for therearewages["Qttf] for your labor[DDrf?ys]."The promise ofwages servesas a spur to action. This usage may be contrasted with that inRuth2:12. HereBoaz,having praisedRuthforher decisionto follow her motherinlawtoa strangeland, concludes:"May theLORDrecompenseyou for your labor ["fWD], and may

yourwage ["|3]be recompensed from theLORD,the God of Israel,underwhose wings you have sought refuge." The labortowhich Boaz refers ispast.He

doesnotmean,as Azariah does in 2 Chr 15:7, to bring aboutthe action for whichhe forecasts wages, butratherto provideRuthwithhope,and so to comfort her inher present distress. Thus,Ruthresponds by thanking Boaz for comforting herOanam)and for "speaking to herheart"b "wmm) (2:13).

The difference between the first usage and the second lies not so much in thefact that the work is still to be done in the first and is already accomplished in the

My thanks to Gary Anderson, Ed Greenstein, Aaron Koller, and Mark Nussberger for their

comments on earlier drafts of this essay. The essay also benefited from the suggestions ofthe jour

nal's anonymous reviewers. Translations ofrabbinictexts in this essay are my own. In translating


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THE DYNAMICS OF A BIBLICAL METAPHOR 709

second as in the fact that the second usage belongs to the dynamic of hope and

despair, distress and comfort, while the first instead resides more immediately in

the sphere of rational calculation. One can, of course, at the same time comfort apious interlocutor with the hope of reward and urge her, on the basis ofthat same

anticipated future, to continue in her pious work. Nevertheless, the distinction

between comfort and calculation is analytically clear and affords insight into the

dynamics of the metaphor of the hireling. I advance two related arguments in this

article. First, insofar as it works to motivate obedience (the first usage), the hireling

metaphor is asymmetric: it allows for the figuration only of reward, not of punish

ment. This structural "flaw" is the topic of the first section below. Second, insofar

as the metaphor serves to inspire hope, and thus to comfort (the second usage), itemerges organically from the concrete situation of the hireling and participates in

a broad metaphorical complex that is in fact capable of figuring punishment as

well as reward. I address the second usage as it becomes manifest in the Hebrew

Bible and in the Book of Ben Sira in the article's second section.

I. Wages and Wickedness

It is instructive to compare the metaphor of the hireling to the most important

alternative formation through which religious observance is conceptualized in later

biblical and rabbinic literature, namely, the economy of credit and debt.1 Both

metaphors, that of the hireling's wages and that of credit and debt, reflect a "finan

cial" interpretation of God's relationship to human action. Indeed, insofar as the

hireling's wages accrue as a financial claim against the employer, the two

metaphors may be understood less as alternatives than as type and subtype. But in

concretizing the discourse of financial obligation in the employer-employee rela

tionship, the hireling metaphor takes on its own distinctive character. The metaphor

of debt and credit owes its popularity, in part, to a suppleness born of symmetry.Sin and obedience can both be imagined as loans: in the first case, God is the

lender, while in the second, God borrows. God and the worshiper can easily trade

places because the roles of lender and borrower are more or less purely functional,

with only weak social content. The metaphor of the hireling is, at least prima facie,

more rigid. Because the employer-employee relationship encodes a clear hierar

chy, it does not easily allow for role switching. Insofar as the metaphor fixes God

1On thisfar-reaching conceptual scheme,see therecent work of GaryA. Anderson,especially"From Israel's Burden to Israel's Debt: Towards a Theology of Sin in Biblical and Early Second


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asemployer and theworshiperas hireling, the conceptualization of sin andpun-

ishment becomes problematic. Refusaltodo theworkmeans no wages earned, but

the hireling, in thiscase,seemsno worse off than if he or shesimplynever enteredthe employment relationship at all.2The metaphor ofthehirelingthus reinforces

the implication thatarises,primafacie,fromtheverypromise ofrewardin itself,

namely, that performance of the relevant action is more or lessvoluntary.3The

problemof asymmetry arises specifically in connectionwiththe first of the two

usagesof thehirelingmetaphor described above, thatis,to motivatebehavior.As

we shall see in the next section, in its otherusage,toprovidehope and comfort,

the metaphor belongstoabroaderand ultimately symmetric system of metaphors.

Inthis sectionIexamine two solutions to the asymmetry of the metaphor of

the hireling. The first is reflected in Prov 11:18:"The wicked man produces a

deceitful hire[IpVirbVu],whilehe who sows righteousness has reliable wages

[ 3]."4 The parallelism of this verse obscures an important differencebetween the two halves. The "deceitful hire" of thefirsthalfreferstothe economic

gain (ultimatelytoproveillusory) that accrues to the wicked man asaresult of his

2 Equivalentsof the expression"wages ofsin"occur in variouscontextsin rabbinic and pre

rabbinic sources.Insofarasthe expression is understood ironically, as describing God's "payback"

for the commission ofsins,it may be taken as an artificialextensionof thehireling metaphor fromobedience to disobedience. But this understanding is probably in nocasecorrect.The Hebrew term

3573occurs inm.Abot 2:1and4:2.But at least in the firstofthetwopericopes,3has thesensenot of"wages"but of "profit," as is clear from the contrast with mODH("itsloss," i.e., the

lossoccasionedby a transgressive "venture").For the contrast103/"(Aram."70Dn/"X) in entre

preneurial contexts,see,e.g.,>>.Sheq.4:3(58a);y. Yeb.15:7(15b).InRom 6:23, the phrase . . .referstothe wages paid bysin,where sin is imaginedasan employer orcom-mander.Paul,who elsewhere explicitly rejectsthe theologicalimplicationsof the conceptualization

ofGod as employer(Rom4:4),here transfers it instead to sin: it is sin that pays wages,while God

gifts.Nordoesthephrase inActs 1:18mean punishment forsin.Itinstead refers

toliteral wages earned by Judas through his betrayalofJesus.This phrase recurs in 2Pet2:13,15.Inthe lattercase(v.15),it clearly has the same sense as in Acts 1:18: Balaam loves the wages he

receivesfor his wickeddeeds. In thelesstransparentcaseof2Pet2:13,thephrase is typically takenasa metaphor for the punishment "paid" forwickedness,but an interpretation along the lines pro-

posedby Patrick W. Skehan ("ANoteon 2Peter2,13,"Bib41 [1960]6971),wherein the phrasecarriesthe same meaning as in2:15,is considerably more attractive.

3 For thisimplication,see,e.g.,Sifre Numbers 119(ed.Horowitz,145),onthe versesdescrib-ing theLvites' service.'"And the Lvite shallserve, he'(Num18:23).Why doesitsay this? Forit

says, '[Andto thesonsofLevi, behold,Ihave given themall thetitheofIsraelas aninheritance,]

in returnfortheir service'(Num18:21). Imightthink:ifhe wisheshe mayserve,ifhe doesnot

wishheneed not? Henceitsays,'and the Lvite shallserve, he,'against hiswill."The promiseof

compensation appearstocasttheLvites'serviceasoptional:aLvitewhowishestoreceivethe


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THE DYNAMICSOF ABIBLICAL METAPHOR 711

(presumably disreputable) profit-making efforts.In thesecondhalf,bycontrast,the "reliable wages" result notfromtherighteousman's attempttomakealiving,

butfromhisrighteousness(whichmay,of course,beexpressedincharityorotherwiseinmonetary terms,but not in hisprofit-making effortsperse).Thehirelingmetaphor extends here to the situation of sinandso acquires symmetry, only byasubtle sleight of hand, throughthecontrastive pairingofrighteousaction, imaginedonlymetaphoricallyinterms of profit-directed work, with wicked activity thatin

factaimsatmaterial gain.5

TheMishnahintractateAbotappears toofferadifferent solutiontothe asymmetry of the hireling metaphor.Thesecond chapter of the tractate ends with threestatements that characterize religious observancewhether Torah study alone,orrealization of God's will more broadly,isuncertainas labor,and theobservantindividualas ahirelingwhoworks forhis or her wages(2:14-16). Godis"the masterofyourwork" (2:14, 16: imia *73n),that is,theemployer,who "faithfully[1KJ] pays the wagesof your labor [inVlJ/9 Ofr]" (2:16).6Thesecond of the threestatements, attributedto R.Tarfon,is themost vivid:"The day isshort,and theworkisabundant, andtheworkers are lazy, andthewages pDttf ]arehigh,and themaster of the house presses" (2:15).7The individual's lifetime is imaginedhereasthe termofadaylaborer,who,underthe law ofLev19:13 andDeut 24:14-15,

receives wagesat the end oftheday (cf.John9:4). R.Tarfon's portraitislikelymeant to pair with the following maxim toward theendof the third chapter, fromthe mouth ofR.Akiva,aregular interlocutor of R. Tarfon: "The shopisopen,andthe shopkeeper sells on credit[Tpi].The ledgerisopen, andthehand writes,andcollectorsgoabout continuously, extracting [from] people willy-nilly" (3:16).8

5Cf. Matt 6:19-20, contrasting one who stores up treasure on earth with one who stores up

treasure inheaven.But in Matthew, the formerisnotwicked.Acomparison of Prov 11:18 and Matt6:19-20suggests that the notion that accumulation of wealth is itself sinful originates, in part, inthe metaphorical conceptualization of obedience to God in economic terms. The impulse towardsymmetry finds its resolution in the characterization of the concrete pursuit of economic gain perse assin.

6Quotations from the Mishnah follow the text ofMSKaufmann.7On theoft-noted resemblance betweenR.Tarfon's statement and Hippocrates' famous reflec

tion onthebrevity oflife,seeAmramTropper, Wisdom,Politics,andHistoriography:Tractate Avin theContext oftheGraeco-Roman Near East(Oxford Oriental Monographs; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) 174. For further discussion ofAbot2:15,and of HDtf("wages")in rabbinic lit

erature more generally, see Jonathan Wyn Schofer, TheMaking of aSage:A Study inRabbinicEthics(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005) 129-34.

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R. Akiva's pronouncement imagines God as a shopkeeper, collecting customers' debtspunishing them for their sinson a regular basis. There are two

reasons to think that, despite their textual distance from each other inAbot, thetractate offersthemetaphors of the hirelingandof the shopkeeperascomplements,with thefirst conceptualizing obedience (reward)and thesecond sin (punishment).First, R. Tarfon's and R. Akiba's statements share the same distinctive style ofdetailed elaboration through paratactic, staccato clauses. Second, the shopkeeper'sclaim against her customer and the laborer's claim against her employer occurtogether elsewhere in rabbinic law. Thus, for example, the following rule (withqualifying clauses elided) occurs inm.Shebi.10:1:"The sabbatical year voids

loans Store credit is not voided The laborer's wages are not voided." TheMishnah first restates the biblical rule: loans scheduled to come due on or afterthe sabbaticalyear becomevoid withthesabbaticalyear.Twoand onlytwoexceptions are articulated: the customer's debttothe storekeeper, andtheemployer's toher employee.

9

The connection between R. Tarfon's and R. Akiva's maxims suggests thatAbotusesthe metaphor of the hireling tofigureobedience (reward) alone: to represent sin (punishment), it turns to the relationship between shopkeeper and customer. In the next section I demonstrate the prevalence, in the Hebrew Bible and

the Book of Ben Sira, of the other usage of the hireling metaphor, the one rootedin hope and despair, distress and comfort, and exemplified above by Ruth2:12.1show that in this context, the metaphor of the hireling belongs to a broader figurative schema that enjoys something of the symmetry of the metaphor of debt. Inthis schema, wages image reward, whilethehireling's strenuous laborfigurespunishment.

II. Hireling, Hope, Hopelessness

A.Hope

Inmost cases, the metaphorical representation of gainfromGodashireling'swages in the Hebrew Bible and Ben Sira is closely connectedtothe expression ofhope, where "hope" must notbeequated with "cheerfulness" or even "optimism,"but instead with expectant waiting. This connection with hope derives from thesituation of thehireling,whoseposture towardwagesis characteristically hopeful.Thus, Job 7:2 speaks ofthehireling(TOW) who"waits for"(mp**) his wages(f7S7D).

9 See also m Shebu 7:1 where employee wages and store credit occurfirstand last respec


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Likewise, Deut 24:15 enjoins the employer to pay the hireling's wages (IDfr)immediately upon completion oftheday's work, for the hireling is poor and"lifts

his soul" (ItfM mi) toward thewages (cf. Sir 7:20).10

In the Hebrew Bible,hopeas a feature ofthehireling metaphor is most explicit in Jer 31:1617, whereGod beseeches Rachel to cease from weeping for her absent children, "for therearewages [3&] for your labor ["|n*?S?D] . . . and there is a hope [mpn] for yourfuture ]."This hopewillbe realized in the return of her children to theirland. As in Ruth, the promise ofwages is meant to provide solace: the weeping

woman to whom God extends this promise has heretofore refused to be comforted

(Jer31:14, amrftruxo).Thefuture orientation ofthehirelingmetaphorunderlies other cases in which

children are characterized as 3& from God, as in Gen 30:18, where Leah callsher son Issachar(312)on the ground that God paid herwages (HDtP . . . ]\)for having given her maidservant to her husband, and in Ps 127:3, where "the fruit

ofthewomb" is identified as"wages"(3)fromGod.The above material illumi-nates Gen 15:12, where, having been promisedverygreatwages(KE "pDttf)

by God, Abraham, making note of his childlessness, complains: "what can yougiveme, seeing that I shall die disgraced?"11 Because children are 3& par excel-lence,any promised reward that does not include them is not worthy ofthename.

Thecorollary of future hope is present distress. Indeed, in the case of Jere-miah's Rachel, it is likely herverydistress that constitutes the "labor" for whichshe is to receivewages.12God's pledge to Abraham begins with the characteristicoracular declaration of salvation, "do not fear" (*7N),and thus highlights

Abraham's anxiety. While there is no explicit reference to comfort in Abraham's

case, the Hebrew Bible elsewhere characterizes the act of allaying fear as a kind

of comforting. Thus, for example, when, after Jacob's death, Joseph confirms thatheintends to provide for his brothers and wishes them noharm,his reassurance is

conveyed as follows, in language that closely echoes Ruth's conversation withBoaz: "'Andnow,do not fear [1*?X];I shall provide for youandyour children.'And he comforted [DITTI]them, and spoke to their hearts [U2b*?S7 "DTI]"(Gen

1 0 Forthesame idiom outside thecontextof wages, see Ps 25:13, wherethepetitionerpleads:

"To you, LORD, I lift my soul [XPX "^M]. . . . Let none who look to you [Tip] be disappointed."See Jeffrey H. Tigay,Deuteronomy Will: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the NewJPS Translation (JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996) 390 n. 51.

11On , "disgraced," see Edward L. Greenstein, "The Language of Job and Its PoeticFunction,"JBL122 (2003) 65166, here 655.God'spledge to Abraham,TX TDtP,in Gen15 1 h i i d 7127\ "OTH1 (" d th hi h") i Ab t 2 15


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50:21;see also Isa51:1213;Ps23:4).Inlight oftheassociationof allaying fearwithcomforting, thepromiseof wages inGen15:12 looks even closer to the

promiseofthesameinRuth2:12andJer31:1617.

13

The depictionoftheobedientactorasahirelinghopingforhiswagesoccursatseveralpointsin theBookofBenSira.TheprayerfortherestorationofZion inSir36:21includestherequest:1TW2 TW rfW9 V% "give those whowait for you their wages[], thatyourprophetsmay be foundtrustworthy[]"(MSB).14Thephrase"pVr?Mmay allude to Job 7:2, TDfeDIl^yD mp\ quoted above; the two roots do not elsewhere occur together in theHebrewBible.The Sirachverseresembles Jer 31:16-17inthatthework for whichwages accrue seems to be the very act of persistently looking toward God, and not

independent acts of obedience to God's will.Outside of Sir 36:21 and the concluding psalm (Sirach 51), Greek

occursin fourothercontextsin thebook,ofwhichtwo involvethemetaphoricalusagethatis ofinteresthere.15Thefirst isSir 2:8,in themidstofa paraeneticdis-courseurginghopeinGodintimesoftrial(2:7,"wait forhis mercy";2:9,"hopeforgoodthings"):"You who feartheLord,have faith[]inhim, and

yourwages[]willnotfail."16

IntheSyriac,thesecondhalfoftheversereads:whwlmbyt grkwn,"and he

willnotkeepyourwagesovernight."Onthisversion,Sir2:8alludestoLev 19:13,whichenjoinsthat "thewages ofahireling[TDttflf?S7D] shallnotremainwithyouuntil morning." TheSyriac version is likelysecondary,but it highlights what isimplicitin theGreek: hopeinGodquafaithfulemployerisnotmisplaced.17

1 3

For the explicit characterization of future rewardas comfort, see SaulLieberman,ed.,

MidrashDebarim Rabbah (1964;repr.,Jerusalem: Shalem, 1992) 77: R.Abahu "saw thereward[3]that the Holy One, blessed be He, was togranthim in the future ..., andwhen he saw all

these comforts [mana]prepared,he said, 'All these areAbahu's.'"1 4

On this prayer, see Menahem Kister, "The Prayers of the Seventh Book of the Apostolic

ConstitutionsandTheirImplications for theFormulationof the Synagogue Prayers" (in Hebrew),

Tarbiz 11(2008)20538,esp.22425,and theliteraturecited therein.1 5

The other two instances occur in Sir 11:18 and 34:27.On theformer,see n. 19below.The

latter occurs in aninjunctionagainstdenyinghirelingstheirwages.1 6Alexander A. Di Leila ("Fear of theLordand Belief and Hope in theLord amid Trials:

Sirach 2:118," in Wisdom,YouAre My Sister: Studies in Honor of RolandE.Murphy, O. Carm.,

on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday[ed.Michael L.Barr; CBQMS29;Washington: Catholic

Biblical Association ofAmerica, 1997] 188-204, here 191) reviews manuscript evidence for

("fall") instead of ("fail," literally"stumble").If isoriginal,it is notimpossiblethatthe reference is to accrual orpayment(for thismeaning,seeLS J,1407, s.v. ) and that the

word "not" ( ) represents a secondary addition But is the lectio difflcilior and Z


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THEDYNAMICSOFA BIBLICALMETAPHOR 715

InSir 11:2022, Ben Sira again counsels the righteous to await their rewardpatiently.Theparenthetical Hebrew isfromMSA:

Standby your covenant[; ],and attend to it, and in your work [;inaino]grow old.

Donotwonder attheworks ofasinner,but have faith[]intheLord,andcon-

tinue[] your labor []....

TheLord's blessing is in the wages []ofapiousperson,and in a shorttimehis

good pleasure []flourishes.

Theseversesbristle with textcritical challenges.Themostimportant,forourpur-

poses,concernsthelastphraseinv.21.The Greekhas"continueyour labor,"whiletheHebrew has 111*0 nip,"waitfor his light." The Syriac(qw3bnwhrh)parallelstheHebrew. It is difficult toaccount fortheGreek as a misconstrual ofaHebrewVorlageof this sort.18But it ispossibletoconstruct aVorlagefortheGreekthatisclose to the Hebrew in diction and sense. The imperative may reflect mp;inthe LXX, thisverboften renders the nearsynonymous root3. "Your labor"inSir 11:21 may be irfryD; renders lf?S7D in Isa 49:4. The reconstructedVorlage, "[1? *? nip, conveys the samemessage of hopeful waiting for one'sreward astheHebrew ofMSA,albeit with aslightlydifferent emphasis.Theoccur-renceofrtoD in Sir36:21,analyzed above, supports this reconstruction.

Theother relevant textual problem occurs in 11:22, where the Greek has"wages"and "his good pleasure" but the Hebrew has*?("lot") andIJIIpn ("hishope").TheoccurrenceofthephraseD^TCH*7TUinPs125:3 constitutesonerea-sontothinkthatpHX*7 inMSA reflects thesecondary influence ofabiblical for-mulation,and that"wages"is original.19Additional evidence for this hypothesiscomes from the parallelism of3&and mpn in Jer31:1617.On thispattern,wemay suppose that Sir 11:22 originallyhad"wages"(as reflectedin theGreek)and

"his hope" (as in the Hebrew). However these problematicpassagesare to bereconstructed, Sir11:2022clearly reflects a close association between the meta-phorofthehirelingandtherhetoric ofhope.20

"night" metaphorically,to referto thetroubles besetting Ben Sira'saddressee.Thus,Godwillnotletthis"night"passwithoutmaking goodonthepromiseof wages. Cf. Yannai'sqedushtatoGen15:1(ed.Rabinowitz,1:139), wherethepoetpraisesGodfor showingAbrahamhisreward,1?]1TDttf"DtP^,"forhedidnotwithholdthehireling's wagesovernight."PossiblyYannaihas

inmindthefactthat God'sreassurancecomesatnight.18SegalODO,72) suggeststhat the Greekread"pli.19 The distance between "lot" and "wages" becomes smaller in light of Sir 11:18 in the peri-


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B.Hopelessness

If in the above examples the image of the hireling evokeshope,Job employs

the hireling,onthe contrary,as afigureofdespair.21

Inchap.7,Job describeshumankind's days as "like those ofahireling[TDtP]"(v.1),and humankind "likea hireling [TDtf] who waitsforhis wages" (v. 2). He proceeds,inthis vein,todetail how hefindsno rest, day or night, and that his days come to an end "withouthope[mpn]"(v.6).22Job meditates again on the nature of human life inchap. 14,andhere,too,itis characterized by labor and marked withhopelessness.Job asksthat God turn aside andleta person be, "until, likeahireling[TDto],he finishesout[nXT]his day"(v.6).23Job immediately proceeds to contrast humankind withatree,which alone has"hope"(mpn), in that it is capable of renewing itself (v. 7).

How can the image of the hireling at once evoke hope (as in the examples inthe preceding discussion) and despair (asinJob7 and14)? An observationbyNaphtali H. Tur-Sinai on Job 14:6 provides a starting point for one possible solution. Attempting to account for the verb\whichordinarilyimpliessatisfactionofanobligation,hepositsthattheverse refers"not toanyhirelingingeneral,buttoahireling whoisbehindinhisworkandmust 'makegoodhisday'tohismaster

by anadditionalday's work."24We may alternatively imagineasituation,wellattestedinothercontextsintheancientNearEast,wherethehirelinghasbeenpaid

wholly or partially inadvance.25Ineithercase,thisapproachsupposesthatthedespairofJob's hireling originatesinthefactthathedoesnot,intheparticularsit-uation,expectfuturewagesforhiswork.But thisapproachcannotexplainthe fig

Abot 2:16.Cf. also (and for this observation I am indebted to Mark Nussberger) Gen 15:6,where,

in the aftermath of God's promise of wages toAbraham (15:1),we hear thatAbraham had faith

(&)in God. On faith in the Hebrew Bible and Ben Sira (in the latter, it is suggested, thedivine

testtargets faith rather than obedience), see Jacob Licht,Testing in the Hebrew Scriptures and in

PostBiblicalJudaism(Jerusalem:Magnes, 1973) 6973.2 1 On metaphors in Job, see Eliezer (Ed) Greenstein, "Remarks on Some Metaphors in the

Bookof Job,"Studies in Bible and Exegesis 9(2009) 23141.2 2

Seethe subtle analysisofthis passage in Carol A. Newsom,TheBook of Job: A Contest of

Moral Imaginations(Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 2003) 13235.2 3The renderingof HSTas "he finishes out" depends on the NJPSVandis only approximate.

Onthe root2,see Anderson, "From Israel's Burden," 1930,and see the discussion in the next

paragraphand in n. 30 below.2 4 NaphtaliH.TurSinai,The Book of Job: A New Commentary(Jerusalem:Kiryath Sepher,

1967)234.2 5

See,e.g.,GudrunDosch,"NonSlave Labor in Nuzi," inLabor in the Ancient NearEast

(ed.Marvin A. Powell; AOS68;New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1987)22335, esp. 232

("In mostcasesa person received wages for reaping a certain field in advance and then had to do


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uration of Job's predicament through the hireling of7:1-2,who is explicitly characterized as waiting for his wages.

A partial solution to the paradox lies in the elasticity of the hireling's term oflabor. Not unlikeAbot2:15, Job maps this term onto the entirety of the human lifespan, but in contrast to R. Tarfon, he does not contemplate an afterlife in whichone might enjoy the wages of one's labor.26The failure to secure "wages" in theform of a payout after death resonates with the concrete experience of laborers inthe biblical world, where employers might delay or refuse payment of wages, andworkers were left with little or no effective recourse.27But the precarious natureof the hireling's claim against the employer can play only a subsidiary role in Job'semployment ofthehireling as a figure of despair, not only because Job makes no

reference to it but also because the hireling waiting for wages pairs in 7:2 with theslave who longs for the evening shade, an object to which the slave must, in theordinary course of things, attain.28

26On future expectation andtheafterlife intheHebrewBible,see generally JonD.Levenson,Resurrectionandthe RestorationofIsrael: TheUltimate Victoryof theGodof Life(New Haven:Yale UniversityPress,2006). Insofar as the rhetoric of labor, hope, and wages is closely connected

to the themes developed in Levenson's book, this essay may be taken as complementingit.27

Thispossibility is implicit in Lev 19:13 and Deut24:14-15,which legislate vividly againstthe practice. See also Mai 3:5, where the prophet condemns offending employers. Even the godsare not immune to such abuse: Poseidon recallstoApollo how they worked for a human employerfor one year, Poseidon building Troy's walls and Apollo herding cattle, "[b]ut when the changing

seasons broughton thetime for our labourto bepaid,then headstrong Laomedon violatedandmadevoid all ourhire,and sentusaway, and sent threats afterus,"in particular,athreat to sell them intoslavery (Homer //. 21.411-54). The translation isfrom Richard Lattimore,TheIliad of Homer(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951)430.For the socioeconomic context of this passage,see MosesI.Finley,The Ancient Economy(Sather Classical Lectures 43; updated ed.; Berkeley:University of CaliforniaPress,1999)66.On the continuity of the worlds of the Bible and of Greek

epic with respect to abuse of the poor, hirelings among them, see Jonathan Ben-Dov, "The Poor'sCurse: Exodus xxii 20-26 and Curse Literature in the Ancient World,"VT56(2006)431-51.28In the verses that follow (Job 7:3-4), Job describes himselfasinheriting "vanity" andas

suffering from sleeplessness. David J. A. Clines(Job 1-20[WBC 17; Dallas: Word, 1989] 184)convincingly reads these verses as elaborations ofJob7:2: "Ifhefeels himselfahired laborer,heknows he will not have the satisfaction of receiving his wages attheend of the day... . Or if he feelshimselfahard-pressed slave whose only pleasure is to anticipate the shade of evening, hefindsthathis evenings arenowelcomerelief."(Evidence thattheevening's benefittothe slave is sleep comesless from Matt20:12,cited by Clines, than from Eccl5:11.)Butthereflections in Job 7:3-4 are particular to Jobhimself,while Job 7:1-2 describes the universal human condition, ofwhichJob has

now become acutely aware, and this in terms of thetypicalslave and thetypicalhireling. Job 7:1-2must therefore be understood on its ownterms,independent from the additional turns of the screw,specific to Job elaborated in the verses that follow At the same time I contend that although Job


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Whattheslaveandthehireling share isnotthe uncertainrealization oftheirgoalsbuttheunhappinessoftheirpresent, burdenedstate,anunhappinessmanifestintheir focusedattentionon the end oftheirworkperiod.The equivalence thatJobdraws betweenthehirelingandtheconscript(7:1;14:6,14) confirmsthat thenegative usage oftheimage ofthehireling derives first and foremost from thehireling's disagreeable experiencequaworker.Likethehirelingandtheslave, theconscript,too,looks forward to the end ofthework: "all the time of my servicep m ] I wait |>]until my replacementpJlD^n]comes" (14:14).29The roots*7\usedherefortheconscript,andmp,predicatedofthehireling inJob7:2, aremoreorlesssynonymous.Throughtheimplicitcomparisonofthehirelingantic-ipatingwageswiththeslavewho awaitstheevening shadeandtheconscriptwho

looks forward to areplacement,Job drains the hireling'swagesoftheirpositivevalence. They signify not therewardforthehireling's labor, but simplytheendofthatlabor. Withwagesthusoccluded,what resonates is the laboritself,in all itsunhappiness.30EveninGenesis15,Jeremiah31,Ruth2,andBenSira, as observedabove, thenotionof "wages" occurs precisely as aprospect,inthecontext ofananxious or tryingpresent.Byreducingthatprospecttoaboundarypoint,onethatreflects backonratherthandirectingattentionawayfromthehireling's tryingpres-ent,Job managestomakethehireling an image of hopelessness.

Iobserved inthefirst section ofthisessaythat themetaphorofthehireling,inits prospective usage, wherein it attempts to motivate action by promisingreward, seems incapable offiguringsinorpunishmentbecausetheworstalterna-tive,in thetermsofthemetaphor,is simplytheabsence of reward.Butthepassagesfrom Jobcited above demonstrate that in the alternative usage of thehirelingmetaphor,theonerootedintheconcretehireling'sintermingledhopeanddespair,

"Adam'ssons" asbearinga yoke, and asravagedby fearandhopefor thefuture,thenimmediately

afterwarddepicts humanbeings'restlessness upontheir beds.ThejuxtapositionofworkfiguredbyAdam'syokeand by the reference tohopeand sleeplessness may owe adebtto thebeginning

of Job 7.2 9

TheNJPSVs renderingofas"replacement"receives confirmationfromthe attestationof in the context ofanother,themilitary ranksof the WarScroll.See,e.g., 1QM16.11.In context, the conscript's HD^n contrasts ironicallywiththat of the cut tree. Hisreplacementis a

distinct person,with whom the conscript has no connection, whilethe treestumpsends forth new

shoots (^)fromitself andthus enjoysan afterlife.3 0

Thisexplanation is as apt for Job 14:6 as for Job7:12.PaceTurSinai(Book of Job, 234),

the fact that thehirelingof 14:6 servesundercompulsiondoes notmeanthatthereis noprospectof

futurewages. The despairing force of thehirelingmetaphor in this versedoes not dependon theabsence offuturewages anymore thandoes that of the samemetaphorin7:12,wherethehireling's

wages are explicitly mentioned. It depends, rather, on the placing of rhetorical emphasis on the


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the misery of the labor can itself have metaphorical resonance. Indeed, the continuity between hireling and conscript that is implicit in Job points toward the mostfundamental metaphor for punishment in classical Biblical Hebrew, that conveyed

by the phrase "to bear one's sin" (3/tf D/lW/Kn Nfci). Baruch J. Schwartz, in anarticle that clarifies many features of the expression Nfei (I use as ametonymfortheset ofsintermsthatoccuras objects ofNPJ), nevertheless leavesthe image it conveys curiously abstract: "a person's sins are figured as a burden.A person's evil deed, having been accomplished, is as it were a load, a burden thatone must bear."31But in what context is this burden borne? The sinner seems tobe imagined as a corve laborer, whose activity is expressed, paradigmatically,through the verb*730("to bear a load") but also through the more or less synony

mous verb Xttfl32

Thus, for example, when the community lamenting in the finalchapter of Lamentations complains of having to bear its fathers' sins(1$7

^),it is imagining itself as a crew ofconscriptedlaborers.Intheremainderofthissection,I followuponJob 7 and 14, developing two

pointsofcontactbetweenthebiblicalhireling,ontheonehand,andtheslave andtheconscriptonthe other.Thesepointsofcontactconfirmthat thehirelingbelongsto a metaphoricalcontinuity capable of expressing not only reward (through

wages) but alsopunishment (through labor). First,the hireling maycommitto an

employerfor an extended period oftime,sometimes with severe restrictions onliberty.Inbiblicalliterature,thephrases TOfcnntf111andntf11 TDtP(Exod 12:45;Lev 22:10; 25:6,40) have persuasivelybeeninterpretedashendiadysesindicatingthe"resident hireling," a hireling whocontractsout labor for anextendedperiodoftimeandlivesintheemployer'shome.33 Such a hireling can also be describedas a TDitf, withoutmodification,at least in nonlegal texts.Thus,forexample,Isa16:14 refers to a span ofthreeyears as "like the years of a hireling."34Although

3 1 BaruchJ.Schwartz,"'Term'orMetaphorBiblical7#D/flS? & (inHebrew),Tarbiz

63 (1994) 14971,esp. 164. Thetranslationismine.The argument ofthisarticle is summarized and

further developed in Baruch J. Schwartz, "The Bearing of Sin in the PriestlyLiterature,"inPome-

granates andGoldenBells: Studies inBiblical, Jewish,andNearEasternRitual,Law,and Literature

in Honor ofJacob Milgrom (ed. DavidP.Wright et al.; WinonaLake,IN:Eisenbrauns, 1995) 321.3 2See MosheHeld,"TheRootZBL/SBLinAkkadian,Ugaritic,and BiblicalHebrew,"JAOS

88 (1968) 9096, esp. 9296.3 3See JacobMilgrom,Leviticus 2327:A New TranslationwithIntroduction andCommentary

(AB 3B; New York: Doubleday, 2001) 222122, and at greater length, idem, "The Resident

Hireling,"inA Light for Jacob: Studies in theBible and theDeadSeaScrolls in Memory of Jacob

Shalom Licht(ed.YairHoffman andF.H.Polak; Jerusalem: Bialik, 1997) 10M3*. One might char-

acterizeJacob,as a shepherd in Laban's employ (on whom seen.30 above), as just such a resident

hireling; compare "p57,"who dwell with you," predicated of the TDtP in Lev 25:6, to


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720 THECATHOLICBIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 73,2011

biblical textsprovide virtually no information about the nature of such longterm

employment contracts,evidence from Mesopotamia and from the Zenonpapyri

suggeststhat hirelings so employed sometimesboundthemselves to refrain from

seeking alternative employment, or even from leaving the employer's residence,until the term of employment was over.35These data shed light on the numerous

contextsin biblical literature where, as in Job 7:2, the slave and the hireling are

imagined as more orlessequivalent (see Lev 25:3940;Deut15:18;Sir 7:20).

Cicero, who characterizes workers paid for their manual labor (as opposed to

craftspersons compensated for their artistic skill) as slaves(Off. 1.15051),would

nothave been far from themarkif he had said the sameofthebiblical world.36

The second important commonality between the hireling and the conscript

here,totheexclusion oftheslaveis thatthe conscript,like the hireling, typicallyreceivessomething that may be characterizedaswages.Thus, for example, tablets

from Alalakh dated to the Old Babylonian period specify the wages(idu)or hire

(igru;cf.Aram.)of "the menofthe forced labor[massu;cf. Hebrew 0ft]."37

Likewise, the depiction ofIssachar("DtPfeP)in Jacob's blessing (Gen49:15)as

onewho "turned his shoulder to bearing [^O1?]"clearly depends on the(atleastphonetic) relationship between the tribe's name and theword tf ("wages"), a

relationship that also grounds the folk etymology of the tribal name in Gen

3 5

SeeMuhammad A. Dandamaev, "Free Hired Labor in BabyloniaduringtheSixththrough

Fourth CenturiesBC," inLabor in the Ancient NearEast (ed.Powell),27179,esp. 273 (contract

stipulating that the employee may not leave for otherwork duringthe twoyear employment period);

H.Kreissig, "Free Labour in theHellenisticAge," inNonSlaveLabour in theGrecoRoman World

(ed. Peter Garnsey; Cambridge: Cambridge Philological Society, 1980)3033,esp. 31 (contract

between Zenon andbrickmakers in which the latter pledge not to leave their place ofworkuntil

they complete the job). In light of such contractual terms, the proposition that the Hebrew Bible's

resident hireling, in contrast to the slave, "is a free person and canfindanother owner" (Milgrom,

Leviticus2327,2222),shouldprobablybe nuanced.3 6 For Cicero's view and the claim that, in the GrecoRomanworld,the most important dis-

tinction was betweenthosewho worked for themselves(e.g., independent farmers and craftspersons)

and those who (slaveorfree) worked forothers,see Finley,AncientEconomy,73, 7982, 18587.Onwages as a "scandal" for the otherwise highly respected architect in Augustus's Rome,seeMark

Masterson,"Status,Pay, and Pleasure in theDe Architecturaof Vetruvius,"American Journal of

Philology 125(2004)387416,esp.389, 39598.3 7 Thesetexts are quoted and analyzed in Nadav Na'aman, "From Conscription of Forced

Labor to a Symbol ofBondage:Masin the Biblical Literature," in "An Experienced Scribe Who

Neglects Nothing": AncientNearEastern Studies in Honor of Jacob Klein(ed.YitzhakSephati et

al.;Bethesda,MD:CDL,2005)74658,esp.74748.Hartmut Waetzoldt likewise observes ("Com-

pensation of Craft Workers and Officials in the UrIIIPeriod," inLabor in the AncientNearEast[ed. Powell], 11741,esp. 120) that "use ofthese terms [for worker compensation in the Ur III

f f


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30:16.38The case oftheLvites provides another example. Above the age oftwenty-five,they are enrolled to "participate in the work force[Xixb*Q!] in theservice[*17]"ofthetabernacle(Num8:24).Asin thecaseofcorve work, their

"service"involves, paradigmatically, bearingloads:it is NP 37, "theserviceofburdens"(Num4:47).39Norisitoptional.ButNum18:31assignsthem thetitheaswages(IDtP)inexchangefortheirlabor(DDTOy).40

The blurry line between hireling and conscript may shed light on the openingsection of Deutero-Isaiah (Isa40:1-11).The declaration at the beginning of thispassage depicts Jerusalem as having labored under compulsion, evidently in service : "her term of service [frOX] is over .. .her iniquity is satisfied[3]"(v. 1).Theclosingdeclaration,however, speaks ofGodcomingwith"wages"("lDttf)and

"recompense"(rfryD)(v. 10). The images are notincompatible:like Alalakh'scorve laborers, like Issachar, like the Lvites, like Job's hireling, Israel haslabored under compulsion, but with thehope,now imminently to be realized, ofreceiving wages.41Indeed, Israel in Isaiah 40 closely resembles the "hireling"Ruth of Ruth2:12-13.As in the case ofRuth,the promise of wages is part ofagesture of comforting (Isa40:1,10310)and speakingtotheheart(Isa40:2,

>*?y127). Ruthhasactedrighteously,whileIsraelinDeuteroIsaiahhas sinned,butbothalikecanbeimaginedas havinglaboredinthepastandduewages in

thefuture.

42

Itisnotaltogethercertain,astheabove interpretationofIsa40:111assumes,that thewagesofv. 10belongtoIsraelratherthan toGod.43Inany case,however,theverbalechoes binding Isa40:2toJob7;14;andRuth2:12reinforcethelinkbetweenthepositivemetaphorof wagesandthenegativemetaphorofcorve work.44

38See Na'aman, "From Conscription," 752.39

SeeJacob Milgrom,Numbers313:TheTraditionalHebrewTextwiththeNewJPSTrans

lation(JPS TorahCommentary; Philadelphia:JewishPublicationSociety,2004) 27677.4 0 "Inexchangefor" is ;cf. ,used oftheconscriptina different senseinJob14:14,

onwhichseen.29 above.4 1 On*a in Isa40:2,seen.30 above.42Another case of punishment followedbycomforting occurs in Isa12:1:"Though you were

angry atme,your anger turned, and you comforted me [^ftmm]."43For the same assumption, see, e.g., Joseph Blenkinsopp,Isaiah 40-55: A New Translation

withIntroductionandCommentary (AB 19A; New York: Doubleday, 2000) 186. Against thisassumption,see,e.g.,ArnoldB.Ehrlich,Mikr ki-Pheschut(3 vols.;1899-1901;repr., New York:Ktav, 1969) 3:83-85, 151,and in particular the observation that in all other cases where the word"DIPoccurs in the construct or with a possessive adjective, the specified individual is therecipientof the wages.


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