Laborers in the Vineyard

1 “For athe kingdom of heaven is like 1a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his bvineyard.

2 “When he had agreed with the laborers for a 1denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.

3 “And he went out about the 1third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place;

4 and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went.

5 “Again he went out about the 1sixth and the ninth hour, and did 2the same thing.

6 “And about the 1eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he * said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’

7 “They * said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He * said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

8 “When aevening came, the 1owner of the vineyard * said to his bforeman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’

9 “When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a 1denarius.

10 “When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; 1but each of them also received a denarius.

11 “When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,

12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the ascorching heat of the day.’

13 “But he answered and said to one of them, ‘aFriend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?

14 ‘Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.

15 ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your aeye 1envious because I am 2generous?’

16 “So athe last shall be first, and the first last.”