Matius 20:1-7

Workers in the Vineyard

20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner ¹  who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 20:2 And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, ²  he sent them into his vineyard. 20:3 When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, ³  he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. 20:4 He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’ 20:5 So they went. When ⁴  he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, ⁵  he did the same thing. 20:6 And about five o’clock that afternoon ⁶  he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ 20:7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’

[20:1]  ¹ sn The term landowner here refers to the owner and manager of a household.

[20:2]  ² tn Grk “agreeing with the workers for a denarius a day.”

[20:2]  sn The standard wage was a denarius a day. The denarius was a silver coin worth about a day’s wage for a laborer in Palestine in the 1st century.

[20:3]  ³ tn Grk “about the third hour.”

[20:5]  ⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:5]  ⁵ tn Grk “he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour.”

[20:6]  ⁶ tn Grk “about the eleventh hour.”