ἀμάω G0270
Having reaped, gathered in a harvest; completed harvesting
This verb means to reap or harvest grain. In James 5:4, the wages of workers 'who reaped' the fields cry out against unjust landowners. Classical Greek used it for harvesting crops and poetically for gathering various things. The multilingual glosses (Spanish 'que-segaron', German 'ernten') confirm this agricultural sense. James's prophetic indictment addresses economic exploitation: the harvested wealth was produced by laborers whose withheld wages constitute evidence against oppressors, personified as crying out for justice.
Senses
1. sense 1 — The aorist active participle in genitive masculine plural form indicates completed harvesting action by workers, modifying 'the wages of those who reaped.' Classical epic usage extended reaping metaphorically to gathering or drawing various things, but here the literal agricultural sense prevails. James's imagery presents the withheld wages as possessing agency, crying out like Abel's blood. The workers' completed labor creates moral debt that heaven hears, invoking prophetic themes of economic justice and divine accountability for exploitation. 1×
AR["الَّذينَ-حَصَدوا"]·ben["কাটা-যাদের"]·DE["ernten"]·EN["having-reaped"]·FR["ἀμησάντων"]·heb["קוֹצְרִים"]·HI["काटे"]·ID["yang-menuai"]·IT["amēsantōn"]·jav["kang-mbabadi"]·KO["거둔"]·RU["пожавших"]·ES["que-segaron"]·SW["waliovuna"]·TR["biçenlerin"]·urd["کاٹا"]
Related Senses
H3754 1. vineyard, cultivated grape plot (92×)H0730 1. cedar tree or wood (73×)H1612 1. vine, grapevine (55×)H3293a 1. forest, wood, thicket (55×)H5560 1. fine flour (53×)H5193 1. plant vegetation (48×)H2232 1. sow seed, plant crops (41×)H1715 1. grain, cereal crop (40×)H7114b 1. reap, harvest grain (36×)H2132 1. olive tree (34×)H8184 1. barley (34×)H2406 1. wheat (grain crop) (30×)H7070 1. reed, cane (plant) (30×)H7848 1. acacia (28×)H8328 1. root of a plant (28×)H8384 1. fig tree (25×)H5488 1. reeds, rushes (in 'Sea of Reeds') (24×)G0290 1. a vineyard (23×)G2325 1. reap, harvest a crop (21×)G4687 1. sow seed, plant (21×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
ἀμάω, __Bmostly Epic dialect in middle, draw, gather (compare ἐξ-, ἐπ-, καταμάομαι), ταλάροισιν ἀμησάμενοι [γάλα]Refs 8th c.BC+ —active, χερσὶν ἀμήσας κρατὸς ὕπερθε κόνιν, of a mourner, pouring dust on his head, Refs—poetical and later Prose. (Cl. Lithuanian sémti 'draw (water)'.)