^20:1“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner¹ who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ^20:2And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage,² he sent them into his vineyard. ^20:3When it was about nine o’clock in the morning,³ he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. ^20:4He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’ ^20:5So they went. When⁴ he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon,⁵ he did the same thing. ^20:6And 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?’ ^20:7They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’ ^20:8When⁷ 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.’ ^20:9When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay.¹⁰^20:10And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. ^20:11When¹¹ they received it, they began to complain¹² against the landowner, ^20:12saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’ ^20:13And 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?¹⁵^20:14Take what is yours and go. I¹⁶ want to give to this last man¹⁷ the same as I gave to you. ^20:15Am I not¹⁸ permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’¹⁹^20:16So the last will be first, and the first last.”

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Footnotes

1 The term landowner here refers to the owner and manager of a household.
2 Grk “agreeing with the workers for a denarius a day.” 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 Grk “about the third hour.”
4 Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
5 Grk “he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour.”
6 Grk “about the eleventh hour.”
7 Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
8 That is, six o’clock in the evening, the hour to pay day laborers. See Lev 19:13b.
9 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, includes the pronoun on the basis of the greater external attestation.
10 Grk “each received a denarius.” See the note on the phrase “standard wage” in v. .
11 Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
12 The imperfect verb ἐγόγγυζον (egonguzon) has been translated ingressively.
13 Grk “he”; the referent (the landowner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 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 Grk “for a denarius a day.”
16 Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
17 Grk “this last one,” translated as “this last man” because field laborers in 1st century Palestine were men.
18 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 (B D; among later witnesses, note L Z Θ 700) and since 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. includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.
19 Grk “Is your eye evil because I am good?”