Matthew 20:1–16

Workers in the Vineyard

20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner1 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. When4 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 afternoon6 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.’ 20:8 When7 it was evening8 the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give the pay9 starting with the last hired until the first.’ 20:9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay.10 20:10 And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. 20:11 When11 they received it, they began to complain12 against the landowner, 20:12 saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’ 20:13 And the landowner13 replied to one of them,14 ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage?15 20:14 Take what is yours and go. I16 want to give to this last man17 the same as I gave to you. 20:15 Am I not18 permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’19 20:16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

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1	sn The term landowner here refers to the owner and manager of a household.
2	tn Grk “agreeing with the workers for a denarius a day.” 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.
3	tn Grk “about the third hour.”
4	tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
5	tn Grk “he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour.”
6	tn Grk “about the eleventh hour.”
7	tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
8	sn That is, six o’clock in the evening, the hour to pay day laborers. See Lev 19:13b.
9	tc ‡ Most witnesses (including B D W Θ f1, 13 33vid 𝔐 latt sy) have αὐτοῖς (autois, “to them”) after ἀπόδος (apodos, “give the pay”), but this seems to be a motivated reading, clarifying the indirect object. The omission is supported by א C L Z 085 Or. Nevertheless, NA 27 includes the pronoun on the basis of the greater external attestation.
10	tn Grk “each received a denarius.” See the note on the phrase “standard wage” in v. 2.
11	tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
12	tn The imperfect verb ἐγόγγυζον (egonguzon) has been translated ingressively.
13	tn Grk “he”; the referent (the landowner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14	tn Grk “And answering, he said to one of them.” This construction is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified in the translation.
15	tn Grk “for a denarius a day.”
16	tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
17	tn Grk “this last one,” translated as “this last man” because field laborers in 1st century Palestine were men.
18	tc ‡ Before οὐκ (ouk, “[am I] not”) a number of significant witnesses read ἤ (ē, “or”; e.g., א C W 085 f1, 13 33 and most others). Although in later Greek the οι in σοι (oi in soi)—the last word of v. 14—would have been pronounced like ἤ, since ἤ is lacking in early mss (B D; among later witnesses, note L Z Θ 700) and since mss were probably copied predominantly by sight rather than by sound, even into the later centuries, the omission of ἤ cannot be accounted for as easily. Thus the shorter reading is most likely original. NA 27 includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.
19	tn Grk “Is your eye evil because I am good?”

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