Labour's Rights and the Duty to Withhold Not Good

Proverbs 3:27 commands: "Withhold not good from them to whom it is due." Joseph S. Exell's Victorian commentary examines this through the lens of labour justice, tracing how Elohim transformed Adam's punishment into humanity's greatest dignity.

When Adam fell into sin, labour was imposed as judgment—yet mercy mingled with that sentence. The necessity to "eat bread in the sweat of thy brow" (Genesis 3:19) became paradoxically one of mankind's purest sources of enjoyment. Labour develops both body and mind, occupies our time profitably, and anchors our deepest satisfactions.

Yet man has too frequently corrupted labour into a curse. Exell argues that restoring labour to its paradisiacal character—as help rather than hindrance—constitutes "objects of noble and Godlike enterprise."

Three principles emerge from Proverbs 3:27 applied to working people:

First, limiting labour is personally good—for body, mind, and soul. Second, it is relatively good—benefiting employers' consciences and strengthening the commonwealth and Church. Third, the demand for reasonable hours is practicable; late evening shopping required no divine ordinance, merely domestic arrangement.

Young workmen possess inherent rights: leisure to advance their interests, time to fulfil their moral designs, and "breathing time" for moral achievements. To withhold these goods from those to whom they are due violates Proverbs 3:27's explicit command and denies the Adonai-given dignity of labour itself.