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?’

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Footnotes

1I.e. 5 pm
*A star (*) is used to mark verbs that are historical presents in the Greek which have been translated with an English past tense in order to conform to modern usage. The translators recognized that in some contexts the present tense seems more unexpected and unjustified to the English reader than a past tense would have been. But Greek authors frequently used the present tense for the sake of heightened vividness, thereby transporting their readers in imagination to the actual scene at the time of occurence. However, the translators felt that it would be wise to change these historical presents to English past tenses.

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’

NIVNew International Version (2011)

About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

CSBChristian Standard Bible

Then about five he went and found others standing around and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?’

NLTNew Living Translation

“At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing there and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here the whole day unemployed?’

KJV 1900King James Version

And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?

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