DEUT1389 "He who with holds a worker's wages is as though he deprived him of his life" (Baba Metzia 112a). The rabbis also warned employers that the withheld wages would not enrich them. On the contrary, their transgression would result in the loss of their estates (Bamidbar Rabbah 11). The biblical allegation that a worker "sets his soul upon it" [his wages; this verse] was interpreted literally by the rabbis. "Why did the man ascend the ladder, suspend himself from the tree, and risk death itself; was it not that you should pay him his wages?" (Baba Metzia 112a)