James 5:4 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Behold; this is either a note of demonstration, as 1 Thessalonians 1:29; q.d. The case is plain, and cannot be denied; or of excitation; q.d. Seriously consider it; or rather, of confirmation, to intimate, that the threatenings here denounced should certainly be made good upon them: see Judges 1:14. The hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields; the wages of those by whose labour and sweat ye yourselves live and are nourished. Which is of you kept back by fraud; either wholly denied them, or detained from them when due to them, contrary to the law, Leviticus 19:13 Deuteronomy 24:14,15. Deferring payment is a sort of defrauding, as it bereaves the creditor of the benefit of improvement; and so they are taxed here with injustice, as well as covetousness, in that they lived upon other men's labours, and starved the poor to enrich themselves. Crieth; viz. to God for vengeance, as such sins are said to do, which either are so openly and boldly committed, as to dare the justice of God, or so secretly, or securely, that they are like to escape the justice of men, Genesis 4:10, Genesis 18:20,21. Among others, oppression of the poor is a loud crying sin, Exodus 2:23 Job 24:11,12 Hab 2:9,11,12. The Lord of sabaoth; i. e. the Lord of hosts, as having all the creatures above and below, of all sorts, ranked under him as their great Commander, whose will they are ready to execute. He mentions God by this title, not only for the encouragement of the poor oppressed, whose Patron and Protector he avows himself to be, Exodus 22:23,24,27 Pr 23:11; but for terror to the powerful oppressors, who think themselves out of the reach of men's judgment.