Matius 20:3

20:3 When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, ¹  he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work.

Matius 21:34-35

21:34 When the harvest time was near, he sent his slaves ²  to the tenants to collect his portion of the crop. ³  21:35 But the tenants seized his slaves, beat one, ⁴  killed another, and stoned another.

Matius 22:43-44

22:43 He said to them, “How then does David by the Spirit call him ‘Lord,’ saying,

22:44 ‘The Lord said to my lord, ⁵ 

“Sit at my right hand,

until I put your enemies under your feet”’? ⁶ 

Matius 25:30

25:30 And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹ tn Grk “about the third hour.”

² tn See the note on the word “slave” in 8:9.

sn These slaves represent the prophets God sent to the nation, who were mistreated and rejected.

³ tn Grk “to collect his fruits.”

⁴ sn The image of the tenants mistreating the owner’s slaves pictures the nation’s rejection of the prophets and their message.

⁵ sn The Lord said to my Lord. With David being the speaker, this indicates his respect for his descendant (referred to as my Lord). Jesus was arguing, as the ancient exposition assumed, that the passage is about the Lord’s anointed. The passage looks at an enthronement of this figure and a declaration of honor for him as he takes his place at the side of God. In Jerusalem, the king’s palace was located to the right of the temple to indicate this kind of relationship. Jesus was pressing the language here to get his opponents to reflect on how great Messiah is.

⁶ sn A quotation from Ps 110:1.