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Wages
        The earliest mention of wages is of a recompense, not in money, but in kind, to Jacob from Laban. Ge 29:15,20; 30:28; 31:7,8,41 In Egypt money payments by way of wages were in use, but the terms cannot now be ascertained. Ex 2:9 The only mention of the rate of wages in Scripture is found in the parable of the householder and the vineyard, Mt 20:2 where the laborer's wages was set at one denarius per day, probably 15 to 17 cents, a sum which may be fairly taken as equivalent to the denarius, and to the usual pay of a soldier (ten asses per diem) in the later days of the Roman republic. Tac. Ann. i. 17; Polyb. vi. 39. In earlier times it is probable that the rate was lower; but it is likely that laborers, and also soldiers, were supplied with provisions. The law was very strict in requiring daily payment of wages. Le 19:13; De 24:14,15 The employer who refused to give his-laborers sufficient victuals is censured Job 22:11 and the iniquity of withholding wages is denounced. Jer 22:13; Mal 3:5; Jas 6:4


Bibliography Information
Smith, William, Dr "Meaning and Definition for 'wages' in Smiths Bible Dictionary".
bible-history.com - Smith's; 1901.

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