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Colossians 4

Col. 4:1 KJV (With Strong’s)

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1
Masters
ho (Greek #3588)
the definite article; the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)
KJV usage: the, this, that, one, he, she, it, etc.
Pronounce: ho
Origin: ἡ (hay), and the neuter τό (to) in all their inflections
ho (Greek #3588)
the definite article; the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)
KJV usage: the, this, that, one, he, she, it, etc.
Pronounce: ho
Origin: ἡ (hay), and the neuter τό (to) in all their inflections
kurios (Greek #2962)
supreme in authority, i.e. (as noun) controller; by implication, Master (as a respectful title)
KJV usage: God, Lord, master, Sir.
Pronounce: koo'-ree-os
Origin: from κῦρος (supremacy)
f, give
parecho (Greek #3930)
to hold near, i.e. present, afford, exhibit, furnish occasion
KJV usage: bring, do, give, keep, minister, offer, shew, + trouble.
Pronounce: par-ekh'-o
Origin: from 3844 and 2192
unto
ho (Greek #3588)
the definite article; the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)
KJV usage: the, this, that, one, he, she, it, etc.
Pronounce: ho
Origin: ἡ (hay), and the neuter τό (to) in all their inflections
doulos (Greek #1401)
a slave (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntary; frequently, therefore in a qualified sense of subjection or subserviency)
KJV usage: bond(-man), servant.
Pronounce: doo'-los
Origin: from 1210
your servants
doulos (Greek #1401)
a slave (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntary; frequently, therefore in a qualified sense of subjection or subserviency)
KJV usage: bond(-man), servant.
Pronounce: doo'-los
Origin: from 1210
that which is just
dikaios (Greek #1342)
equitable (in character or act); by implication, innocent, holy (absolutely or relatively)
KJV usage: just, meet, right(-eous).
Pronounce: dik'-ah-yos
Origin: from 1349
and
kai (Greek #2532)
and, also, even, so then, too, etc.; often used in connection (or composition) with other particles or small words
KJV usage: and, also, both, but, even, for, if, or, so, that, then, therefore, when, yet.
Pronounce: kahee
Origin: apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also a cumulative force
equal
ho (Greek #3588)
the definite article; the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)
KJV usage: the, this, that, one, he, she, it, etc.
Pronounce: ho
Origin: ἡ (hay), and the neuter τό (to) in all their inflections
isotes (Greek #2471)
by implication, equity
KJV usage: equal(-ity).
Pronounce: ee-sot'-ace
Origin: likeness (in condition or proportion)
; knowing
eido (Greek #1492)
used only in certain past tenses, the others being borrowed from the equivalent 3700 and 3708; properly, to see (literally or figuratively); by implication, (in the perfect tense only) to know
KJV usage: be aware, behold, X can (+ not tell), consider, (have) know(-ledge), look (on), perceive, see, be sure, tell, understand, wish, wot. Compare 3700.
Pronounce: i'-do
Origin: a primary verb
that
hoti (Greek #3754)
demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant); causative, because
KJV usage: as concerning that, as though, because (that), for (that), how (that), (in) that, though, why.
Pronounce: hot'-ee
Origin: neuter of 3748 as conjunction
ye
humeis (Greek #5210)
you (as subjective of verb)
KJV usage: ye (yourselves), you.
Pronounce: hoo-mice'
Origin: irregular plural of 4771
also
kai (Greek #2532)
and, also, even, so then, too, etc.; often used in connection (or composition) with other particles or small words
KJV usage: and, also, both, but, even, for, if, or, so, that, then, therefore, when, yet.
Pronounce: kahee
Origin: apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also a cumulative force
have
echo (Greek #2192)
(used in certain tenses only) a primary verb; to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remote; such as possession; ability, contiuity, relation, or condition)
KJV usage: be (able, X hold, possessed with), accompany, + begin to amend, can(+ -not), X conceive, count, diseased, do + eat, + enjoy, + fear, following, have, hold, keep, + lack, + go to law, lie, + must needs, + of necessity, + need, next, + recover, + reign, + rest, + return, X sick, take for, + tremble, + uncircumcised, use.
Pronounce: ekh'-o
Origin: σχέω (skheh'-o)
a Master
kurios (Greek #2962)
supreme in authority, i.e. (as noun) controller; by implication, Master (as a respectful title)
KJV usage: God, Lord, master, Sir.
Pronounce: koo'-ree-os
Origin: from κῦρος (supremacy)
in
en (Greek #1722)
"in," at, (up-)on, by, etc.
KJV usage: about, after, against, + almost, X altogether, among, X as, at, before, between, (here-)by (+ all means), for (... sake of), + give self wholly to, (here-)in(-to, -wardly), X mightily, (because) of, (up-)on, (open-)ly, X outwardly, one, X quickly, X shortly, (speedi-)ly, X that, X there(-in, -on), through(-out), (un-)to(-ward), under, when, where(-with), while, with(-in). Often used in compounds, with substantially the same import; rarely with verbs of motion, and then not to indicate direction, except (elliptically) by a separate (and different) preposition.
Pronounce: en
Origin: a primary preposition denoting (fixed) position (in place, time or state), and (by implication) instrumentality (medially or constructively), i.e. a relation of rest (intermediate between 1519 and 1537)
heaven
ouranos (Greek #3772)
the sky; by extension, heaven (as the abode of God); by implication, happiness, power, eternity; specially, the Gospel (Christianity)
KJV usage: air, heaven(-ly), sky.
Pronounce: oo-ran-os'
Origin: perhaps from the same as 3735 (through the idea of elevation)
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f
Eph. 6:9• 9And, masters, do the same things towards them, giving up threatening, knowing that both their and your Master is in heaven, and there is no acceptance of persons with him. (Eph. 6:9)
,etc.

More on:

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Heaven,
Master,
Servant

Cross References

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Ministry on This Verse

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1-4:  He exhorts them to be fervent in prayer;
5-9:  to walk wisely toward them that are not yet come to the true knowledge of Christ.
10-18:  He salutes them, and wishes them all prosperity.
give.
Lev. 19:13• 13Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbour, neither rob him. The wages of the hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. (Lev. 19:13)
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Lev. 25:39‑43• 39And if thy brother grow poor beside thee, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
 40as a hired servant, as a sojourner, shall he be with thee; until the year of jubilee shall he serve thee.
 41Then shall he depart from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
 42For they are my bondmen, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as men sell bondmen.
 43Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; and thou shalt fear thy God. (Lev. 25:39‑43)
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Deut. 15:12‑15• 12If thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, have been sold unto thee, he shall serve thee six years, and in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
 13And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty;
 14thou shalt certainly furnish him from thy sheep, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of what Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee with shalt thou give unto him.
 15And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and that Jehovah thy God redeemed thee; therefore I command thee this thing to-day. (Deut. 15:12‑15)
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Deut. 24:14‑15• 14Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy of thy brethren, or of thy sojourners who are in thy land within thy gates:
 15on his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and his soul yearneth after it; lest he cry against thee to Jehovah, and it be a sin in thee. (Deut. 24:14‑15)
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Neh. 5:5‑13• 5yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and behold, we must bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already; neither is it in the power of our hand to redeem them, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.
 6And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.
 7And I consulted with myself; and I remonstrated with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother! And I set a great assembly against them.
 8And I said to them, We, according to our ability, have redeemed our brethren the Jews, who were sold to the nations; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? And they were silent and found no answer.
 9And I said, The thing that ye do is not good. Ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God, so as not to be the reproach of the nations our enemies?
 10I also, my brethren and my servants, we might exact usury of them, money and corn. I pray you, let us leave off this usury.
 11Restore, I pray you, to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive-gardens, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine and the oil, that ye have exacted of them.
 12And they said, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do, as thou hast said. And I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.
 13Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house and from his earnings, that performeth not this promise: even thus be he shaken out and emptied! And all the congregation said, Amen! And they praised Jehovah. And the people did according to this promise. (Neh. 5:5‑13)
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Job 24:11‑12• 11They press out oil within their walls, they tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
 12Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out; and +God imputeth not the impiety. (Job 24:11‑12)
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Job 31:13‑15• 13If I have despised the cause of my bondman or of my bondmaid, when they contended with me,
 14What then should I do when *God riseth up? and if he visited, what should I answer him?
 15Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not One fashion us in the womb? (Job 31:13‑15)
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Isa. 58:3,5‑9• 3--Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not; have afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find what pleaseth you, and exact all your labours.
 5Is such the fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul,--that he should bow down his head as a bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to Jehovah?
 6Is not this the fast which I have chosen: to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, and to send forth free the crushed, and that ye break every yoke?
 7Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring to thy house the needy wanderers; when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
 8Then shall thy light break forth as the dawn, and thy health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee, the glory of Jehovah shall be thy rearguard.
 9Then shalt thou call, and Jehovah will answer; thou shalt cry, and he will say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger and the unjust speech, (Isa. 58:3,5‑9)
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Jer. 34:9‑17• 9that every man should let his bondman, and every man his bondmaid, the Hebrew and the Hebrewess, go free, that none should exact service of them, that is, of a Jew his brother.
 10And all the princes and all the people that had entered into the covenant obeyed, every man letting his bondman and every man his bondmaid go free, that none should exact service of them any more: they obeyed, and let them go.
 11But afterwards they turned, and caused the bondmen and the bondmaids whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for bondmen and for bondmaids.
 12And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
 13Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,
 14At the end of seven years ye shall let go every man his brother, a Hebrew, who hath sold himself unto thee; when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee. But your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.
 15And you, ye had this day turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:
 16but ye have turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his bondman, and every man his bondmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and ye have brought them into subjection, to be unto you for bondmen and for bondmaids.
 17Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith Jehovah, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will give you over to be driven hither and thither among all the kingdoms of the earth. (Jer. 34:9‑17)
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Mal. 3:5• 5And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hired servant in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts. (Mal. 3:5)
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James 2:13• 13for judgment will be without mercy to him that has shewn no mercy. Mercy glories over judgment. (James 2:13)
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James 5:4• 4Behold, the wages of your labourers, who have harvested your fields, wrongfully kept back by you, cry, and the cries of those that have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. (James 5:4)
ye.
Eccl. 5:8• 8If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for a higher than the high is watching, and there are higher than they. (Eccl. 5:8)
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Matt. 23:8‑9• 8But *ye*, be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your instructor, and all *ye* are brethren.
 9And call not any one your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, he who is in the heavens. (Matt. 23:8‑9)
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Matt. 24:48‑51• 48But if that evil bondman should say in his heart, My lord delays to come,
 49and begin to beat his fellow-bondmen, and eat and drink with the drunken;
 50the lord of that bondman shall come in a day when he does not expect it, and in an hour he knows not of,
 51and shall cut him in two and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 24:48‑51)
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Luke 16:1‑13• 1And he said also to his disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and *he* was accused to him as wasting his goods.
 2And having called him, he said to him, What is this that I hear of thee? give the reckoning of thy stewardship, for thou canst be no longer steward.
 3And the steward said within himself, What shall I do; for my lord is taking the stewardship from me? I am not able to dig; I am ashamed to beg.
 4I know what I will do, that when I shall have been removed from the stewardship I may be received into their houses.
 5And having called to him each one of the debtors of his own lord, he said to the first, How much owest thou to my lord?
 6And he said, A hundred baths of oil. And he said to him, Take thy writing and sit down quickly and write fifty.
 7Then he said to another, And thou, how much dost thou owe? And he said, A hundred cors of wheat. And he says to him, Take thy writing and write eighty.
 8And the lord praised the unrighteous steward because he had done prudently. For the sons of this world are, for their own generation, more prudent than the sons of light.
 9And *I* say to you, Make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails ye may be received into the eternal tabernacles.
 10He that is faithful in the least is faithful also in much; and he that is unrighteous in the least is unrighteous also in much.
 11If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall entrust to you the true?
 12and if ye have not been faithful in that which is another's, who shall give to you your own?
 13No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and will love the other, or he will cleave to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Luke 16:1‑13)
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Luke 19:15• 15And it came to pass on his arrival back again, having received the kingdom, that he desired these bondmen to whom he gave the money to be called to him, in order that he might know what every one had gained by trading. (Luke 19:15)
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Eph. 6:8,9‑20• 8knowing that whatever good each shall do, this he shall receive of the Lord, whether bond or free.
 9And, masters, do the same things towards them, giving up threatening, knowing that both their and your Master is in heaven, and there is no acceptance of persons with him.
 10For the rest, brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the might of his strength.
 11Put on the panoply of God, that ye may be able to stand against the artifices of the devil:
 12because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies.
 13For this reason take to you the panoply of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having accomplished all things, to stand.
 14Stand therefore, having girt about your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
 15and shod your feet with the preparation of the glad tidings of peace:
 16besides all these, having taken the shield of faith with which ye will be able to quench all the inflamed darts of the wicked one.
 17Have also the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God's word;
 18praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching unto this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints;
 19and for me in order that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the glad tidings,
 20for which I am an ambassador bound with a chain, that I may be bold in it as I ought to speak. (Eph. 6:8,9‑20)
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Rev. 17:14• 14These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is Lord of lords and King of kings: and they that are with him called, and chosen, and faithful. (Rev. 17:14)
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Rev. 19:16• 16And he has upon his garment, and upon his thigh, a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. (Rev. 19:16)
• Likewise, employers who own a company and have employees, in principle, are in the position of masters, and they are to run their companies in a way that would honor the Lord. (“Christ Expressed in the Work Place: Colossians 3:22-25” by B. Anstey)

J. N. Darby Translation

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1
Masters, give to bondmen what is just and fair, knowing that *ye* also have a Master in the heavens.

W. Kelly Translation

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1
Mastersa, justice and equity accord to your bondmen, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.

WK Translation Notes

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a
It is evident that the first verse of chapter 4 belongs to the special exhortations which occupy the close of chapter 3. Consequently, chapter 4 ought, if the division were accurate according to subjects, to begin at the second verse.