How did a hired man count years?

[tonychanyt]

Isaiah 16:

14 But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as the years of a hired man, the glory of Moab will be despised with all that great multitude, and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”

Ellicott answered:

“Within three years,” measured with the exactness of the hired labourer, who will not give more than he has contracted for, and of the employer, who will not take less. The same phrase meets us in Isaiah 21:16.

NIV, Isaiah 21:

16 This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end.

Isaiah 16:

14 But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as the years of a hired man, the glory of Moab will be despised with all that great multitude, and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”

The idiom meant to convey the strict sense: no more than three years, not a day more.

 

[AlexB23]

Isaiah 16:


Ellicott answered:


NIV, Isaiah 21:


Isaiah 16:


The idiom meant to convey the strict sense: no more than three years, not a day more.

The guy probably used a calendar on his fridge, to count the three years.

Just messing around, slowly walking out of here with my humor.

 

[Teresa W.]

I'm thinking it wasn't so much what type of calendar he used, but that he counted carefully. A hired man needs keep diligent with keeping track to know that he was paid properly. Just my two cents.