What Does 1 Timothy 5:18 Mean?
For the writing says, "You shall not muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain," and, "The worker is weighed worthy of his wage."
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.THE KEY
The same rule that keeps grain within reach of a working ox makes a worker’s pay something due, not generosity.
THE MEANING
Your labor is not separated from its provision: the worker’s wage belongs with the work being done. The working ox’s mouth remains open to the grain it threshes, and the human worker is named as worthy of pay.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that payment is merely a gift that can be withheld after the labor is complete.
THE ROOT
μισθοῦ
misthou
GROWS FROM
μισθός
misthos
Wage or pay given for service.
“wage” in this verse is misthou. The word translated “reward” carries the concrete sense of wages: payment attached to service. That makes the worker’s provision part of the claim the verse names, not an optional favor.
ALSO GROWS
misthios: A hired servant.
μίσθιος
This branch keeps the root’s connection to hiring visible: the worker serves under an arrangement of pay.
misthōtos: A hired worker.
μισθωτός
This branch brings the same wage-root directly to the person who works.
ἐργάτης
ergatēs
GROWS FROM
ἔργον
ergon
Work or a deed; something done.
The Greek word for the worker grows from the word for work, binding the person named to the labor itself. Beside the wage-root, the phrase links work and its due provision.
ALSO GROWS
ergon: Work or deed.
ἔργον
The worker’s name shares its seed with the work that produces the yield.
ergazomai: To work or labor.
ἐργάζομαι
This verb carries the same work-root into the act of labor that the verse says merits pay.
THE PATTERN
Provision produced through labor belongs with the laborer, and withholding it is a breach of what is due.
You shall not muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain.You shall not press your neighbor, nor tear from him; the wage of the hired hand shall not lodge with you all night until the morning.Look, the wages of the workers who mowed your fields, stripped away by your fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have gone into the ears of the LORD of hosts.THE THREAD
And remain in that same house, eating and drinking what they give, for the worker is worthy of his pay. Do not step from house to house.Luke uses the same Greek words for “labourer” and “hire” as this verse uses for “labourer” and “reward.” The shared roots carry the same claim into a different setting: the worker’s provision belongs alongside the work.
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