Colossians 4:1

Bible in Basic English (1941)

Masters, give your servants what is right and equal, conscious that you have a Master in heaven.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

¶Οἱ κύριοι, τὸ δίκαιον καὶ τὴν ἰσότητα τοῖς δούλοις παρέχεσθε· εἰδότες ὅτι καὶ ὑμεῖς ἔχετε Κύριον ἐν οὐρανοῖς.

Transliteration

The kyrioi, the dikaion and the isotēta to the doulois parechesthe; eidotes that also you echete Kyrion in ouranois.

Grammar Details

• *kyrioi*: nominative, masculine, plural - masters/lords
• *dikaion*: accusative, neuter, singular - what is just/right
• *isotēta*: accusative, feminine, singular - equality/fairness
• *doulois*: dative, masculine, plural - slaves/servants
• *parechesthe*: present imperative, middle, 2nd plural - provide/grant/offer
• *eidotes*: perfect participle, active, nominative, masculine, plural - knowing
• *echete*: present indicative, active, 2nd plural - you have
• *Kyrion*: accusative, masculine, singular - Lord/Master
• *ouranois*: dative, masculine, plural - heavens

Word Meanings

• *kyrioi*: masters/lords/owners
• *dikaion*: justice/righteousness/what is right
• *isotēta*: equality/fairness/equity/impartiality
• *parechesthe*: grant/provide/supply/furnish
• *Kyrion*: Lord/Master/Owner

Referenced Verses

• Eph 6:8-9 : 8 In the knowledge that for every good thing anyone does, he will have his reward from the Lord, If he is a servant or if he is free. 9 And, you masters, do the same things to them, not making use of violent words: in the knowledge that their Master and yours is in heaven, and he has no respect for a man's position. 10 Lastly, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his power. 11 Take up God's instruments of war, so that you may be able to keep your position against all the deceits of the Evil One. 12 For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against authorities and powers, against the world-rulers of this dark night, against the spirits of evil in the heavens. 13 For this reason take up all the arms of God, so that you may be able to be strong in the evil day, and, having done all, to keep your place. 14 Take your place, then, having your body clothed with the true word, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 Be ready with the good news of peace as shoes on your feet; 16 And most of all, using faith as a cover to keep off all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. 17 And take salvation for your head-dress and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18 With prayers and deep desires, making requests at all times in the Spirit, and keeping watch, with strong purpose, in prayer for all the saints, 19 And for me, that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make clear without fear the secret of the good news, 20 For which I am a representative in chains, and that I may say without fear the things which it is right for me to say.
• Lev 25:39-43 : 39 And if your brother becomes poor and gives himself to you for money, do not make use of him like a servant who is your property; 40 But let him be with you as a servant working for payment, till the year of Jubilee; 41 Then he will go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his family and to the property of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants whom I took out from the land of Egypt; they may not become the property of another. 43 Do not be a hard master to him, but have the fear of God before you.
• Matt 24:48-51 : 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, My lord is a long time in coming; 49 And is cruel to the other servants, taking his pleasure with those who are overcome with wine; 50 The lord of that servant will come in a day when he is not looking for him, and in an hour of which he has no knowledge, 51 And will have him cut in two, and will give him a part in the fate of the false ones: there will be weeping and cries of sorrow.
• Luke 16:1-9 : 1 And another time he said to the disciples, There was a certain man of great wealth who had a servant; and it was said to him that this servant was wasting his goods. 2 And he sent for him and said, What is this which is said about you? give me an account of all you have done, for you will no longer be the manager of my property. 3 And the servant said to himself, What am I to do now that my lord takes away my position? I have not enough strength for working in the fields, and I would be shamed if I made requests for money from people in the streets. 4 I have come to a decision what to do, so that when I am put out of my position they will take me into their houses. 5 And sending for every one who was in debt to his lord he said to the first, What is the amount of your debt to my lord? 6 And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said, Take your account straight away and put down fifty. 7 Then he said to another, What is the amount of your debt? And he said, A hundred measures of grain. And he said to him, Take your account and put down eighty. 8 And his lord was pleased with the false servant, because he had been wise; for the sons of this world are wiser in relation to their generation than the sons of light. 9 And I say to you, Make friends for yourselves through the wealth of this life, so that when it comes to an end, you may be taken into the eternal resting-places. 10 He who is true in a little, is true in much; he who is false in small things, is false in great. 11 If, then, you have not been true in your use of the wealth of this life, who will give into your care the true wealth? 12 And if you have not been true in your care of the property of other people, who will give you that which is yours? 13 No man may be a servant to two masters: for he will have hate for the one and love for the other; or he will keep to the one and have no respect for the other. You may not be servants of God and of wealth.
• Luke 19:15 : 15 And when he came back again, having got his kingdom, he gave orders for those servants to whom he had given the money to come to him, so that he might have an account of what business they had done.
• Lev 19:13 : 13 Do not be cruel to your neighbour or take what is his; do not keep back a servant's payment from him all night till the morning.
• Deut 15:12-15 : 12 If one of your countrymen, a Hebrew man or woman, becomes your servant for a price and does work for you six years, in the seventh year let him go free. 13 And when you make him free, do not let him go away with nothing in his hands: 14 But give him freely from your flock and from your grain and your wine: in the measure of the wealth which the Lord your God has given you, you are to give to him. 15 And keep in mind that you yourself were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: so I give you this order today.
• Deut 24:14-15 : 14 Do not be hard on a servant who is poor and in need, if he is one of your countrymen or a man from another nation living with you in your land. 15 Give him his payment day by day, not keeping it back over night; for he is poor and his living is dependent on it; and if his cry against you comes to the ears of the Lord, it will be judged as sin in you.
• Neh 5:5-9 : 5 But our flesh is the same as the flesh of our countrymen, and our children as their children: and now we are giving our sons and daughters into the hands of others, to be their servants, and some of our daughters are servants even now: and we have no power to put a stop to it; for other men have our fields and our vine-gardens. 6 And on hearing their outcry and what they said I was very angry. 7 And after turning it over in my mind, I made a protest to the chiefs and the rulers, and said to them, Every one of you is taking interest from his countryman. And I got together a great meeting of protest. 8 And I said to them, We have given whatever we were able to give, to make our brothers the Jews free, who were servants and prisoners of the nations: and would you now give up your brothers for a price, and are they to become our property? Then they said nothing, answering not a word. 9 And I said, What you are doing is not good: is it not the more necessary for you to go in the fear of our God, because of the shame which the nations may put on us? 10 Even I and my servants have been taking interest for the money and the grain we have let them have. So now, let us give up this thing. 11 Give back to them this very day their fields, their vine-gardens, their olive-gardens, and their houses, as well as a hundredth part of the money and the grain and the wine and the oil which you have taken from them. 12 Then they said, We will give them back, and take nothing for them; we will do as you say. Then I sent for the priests and made them take an oath that they would keep this agreement. 13 And shaking out the folds of my robe, I said, So may God send out from his house and his work every man who does not keep this agreement; even so let him be sent out and made as nothing. And all the meeting of the people said, So be it, and gave praise to the Lord. And the people did as they had said.
• Job 24:11-12 : 11 Between the lines of olive-trees they make oil; though they have no drink, they are crushing out the grapes. 12 From the town come sounds of pain from those who are near death, and the soul of the wounded is crying out for help; but God does not take note of their prayer.
• Job 31:13-15 : 13 If I did wrong in the cause of my man-servant, or my woman-servant, when they went to law with me; 14 What then will I do when God comes as my judge? and what answer may I give to his questions? 15 Did not God make him as well as me? did he not give us life in our mothers' bodies?
• Eccl 5:8 : 8 It is good generally for a country where the land is worked to have a king.
• Jas 2:13 : 13 For the man who has had no mercy will be judged without mercy, but mercy takes pride in overcoming judging.
• Jas 5:4 : 4 See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies.
• Rev 17:14 : 14 These will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because he is the Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with him are named, marked out, and true.
• Rev 19:16 : 16 And on his robe and on his leg is a name, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
• Isa 58:5-9 : 5 Have I given orders for such a day as this? a day for keeping yourselves from pleasure? is it only a question of the bent head, of putting on haircloth, and being seated in the dust? is this what seems to you a holy day, well-pleasing to the Lord? 6 Is not this the holy day for which I have given orders: to let loose those who have wrongly been made prisoners, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the crushed go free, and every yoke be broken? 7 Is it not to give your bread to those in need, and to let the poor who have no resting-place come into your house? to put a robe on the unclothed one when you see him, and not to keep your eyes shut for fear of seeing his flesh? 8 Then will light be shining on you like the morning, and your wounds will quickly be well: and your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will come after you. 9 Then at the sound of your voice, the Lord will give an answer; at your cry he will say, Here am I. If you take away from among you the yoke, the putting out of the finger of shame, and the evil word;
• Jer 34:9-9 : 9 That every man was to let his Hebrew man-servant and his Hebrew servant-girl go free; so that no one might make use of a Jew, his countryman, as a servant: 10 And this was done by all the rulers and the people who had taken part in the agreement, and every one let his man-servant and his servant-girl go free, not to be used as servants any longer; they did so, and let them go. 11 But later, they took back again the servants and the servant-girls whom they had let go free, and put them again under the yoke as servants and servant-girls. 12 For this reason the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 13 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, I made an agreement with your fathers on the day when I took them out of Egypt, out of the prison-house, saying, 14 At the end of seven years every man is to let go his countryman who is a Hebrew, who has become yours for a price and has been your servant for six years; you are to let him go free: but your fathers gave no attention and did not give ear. 15 And now, turning away from evil, you had done what is right in my eyes, giving a public undertaking for every man to make his neighbour free; and you had made an agreement before me in the house which is named by my name: 16 But again you have put shame on my name, and you have taken back, every one his man-servant and his servant-girl, whom you had sent away free, and you have put them under the yoke again to be your servants and servant-girls. 17 And so the Lord has said, You have not given ear to me and undertaken publicly, every man to let loose his countryman and his neighbour: see, I undertake to let loose against you the sword and disease and need of food; and I will send you wandering among all the kingdoms of the earth.
• Mal 3:5 : 5 And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.
• Matt 23:8-9 : 8 But you may not be named Teacher: for one is your teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And give no man the name of father on earth: because one is your Father, who is in heaven.
• Isa 58:3 : 3 They say, Why have we kept ourselves from food, and you do not see it? why have we kept ourselves from pleasure, and you take no note of it? If, in the days when you keep from food, you take the chance to do your business, and get in your debts;