Deuteronómio 24:15 Comentario: Rashi, Chizkuni, Ramban & Ibn Ezra

ואליו הוא נשא את נפשו means, for the sake of this hire he exposes his life even unto death: he climbs up a steep staircase or hangs on to a high tree to do his work (Sifrei Devarim 279:3; Bava Metzia 112a).

ביומו תתן שכרו, “you are to pay him his wages on the day that he has worked.” The wages become due as soon as he has completed the required number of hours. If he was hired to perform his work during daylight hours, he must be paid no later than sunrise of the following day; if he was hired perform his work during the night , he must be paid no later than sunset of that day. This we have learned in the Talmud tractate Baba Metzia folio 111. This is based on the Torah writing here: ולא תבא עליו השמש כי עני הוא, “(on the same day you are to pay him;) before the sun sets.” We also have another verse spelling out that the night must not pass before the labourer receives his pay for the previous day’s work. (Leviticus 19,13)

IN THE SAME DAY THOU SHALT GIVE HIM HIS HIRE, NEITHER SHALT THE SUN GO DOWN UPON IT. The meaning thereof by way of the plain sense of Scripture is that this explains what is stated in the Torah, the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning,³⁶²Leviticus 19:13. for it is the manner of verses to speak of the common occurrence, and the custom is to hire a laborer for one day and for him to leave toward evening before sunset. And so Scripture commands [the employer] to pay him during his day as soon as he finishes his work, and that the sun should not set upon him [before he is paid], in order that he should be able to purchase with his wages what he, his wife, and his children, need to eat at night, for he is poor as are most of those who hire themselves out for the day, he has staked his life upon this wage to buy with it food to sustain his life. Thus he teaches us here that the intent of what He said in the Torah, the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning³⁶²Leviticus 19:13. is that you pay him during his day, for if you do not pay him when he leaves his work, he will go home and his wage will be left with you until morning and he may die of hunger at night. In a similar way is the verse, for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin; wherein shall he sleep?³⁶³Exodus 22:26. It states the reason for the commandment in most of these prohibitions. And our Rabbis have explained³⁶⁴Baba Metzia 110b. that the verse [the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night] until the morning³⁶²Leviticus 19:13. applies to a day-worker [who departs from work at sundown; the time for paying him his wages is the entire night, and this law is not violated before daybreak]. Then he reverted to explain here the law of a man who is hired for night-work [whose departure from work is at daybreak and the time for paying his wages is the whole day and the law is not violated until sundown]. Thus for each one, there is a twelve hour deadline for payment. This is the truth as received by tradition and is appropriate with correct interpretation.

והיה בך חטא [LEST HE CALL AGAINST THEE UNTO THE LORD,] AND IT BE SIN UNTO THEE — under any circumstances, even if he does not call against thee to the Lord, but greater haste is made to punish thee because of him who cries (Sifrei Devarim 279:4; cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 15:9).