1.  BECAUSE GOD REBUKED THE USING OF SERVICE WITHOUT WAGES.  “Wo unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; THAT USETH HIS NEIGHBOR’S SERVICE WITHOUT WAGES, AND GIVETH HIM NOT FOR HIS WORK.”  Jer. xxii. 13.  The Hebrew word rea, translated neighbor, means any one with whom we have to do—­all descriptions of persons, even those who prosecute us in lawsuits, and enemies while in the act of fighting us—­“As when a man riseth against his NEIGHBOR and slayeth him.”  Deut. xxii. 26.  “Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy NEIGHBOR hath put thee to shame.”  Prov. xxv. 8.  “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy NEIGHBOR.”  Ex. xx. 16.  “If a man come presumptuously upon his NEIGHBOR to slay him with guile.”  Ex. xxi. 14, &c.  The doctrine plainly inculcated in this passage is, that every man’s labor, or “service,” being his own property, he is entitled to the profit of it, and that for another to “use” it without paying him the value of it, is “unrighteousness.”  The last clause of the verse “and giveth him not for his work,” reaffirms the same principle, that every man is to be paid for “his work.”  In the context, the prophet contrasts the unrighteousness of those who used the labor of others without pay, with the justice and equity practiced by their patriarchal ancestor toward the poor.  “Did not thy father eat and drink and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him.  He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him.  But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence to do it.”  Jer. xxii. 15, 16. 17.[A]

[Footnote A:  Paul lays down the same principle in the form of a precept “Masters give unto your servants that which is JUST and EQUAL.”  Col. iv. 1.  Thus not only asserting the right of the servant to an equivalent for his labor, and the duty of the master to render it, but condemning all those relations between master and servant which were not founded upon justice and equality of rights.  The apostle James enforces the same principle.  “Behold, the hire of the laborers, who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth.”  James v. 4.  As though he had said, “wages are the right of laborers; those who work for you have a just claim on you for pay; this you refuse to render, and thus defraud them by keeping from them what belongs to them.”  See also Mal. iii 5.]