Matius 20:2-13

20:2 And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, ¹  he sent them into his vineyard. 20:3 When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, ²  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. When ³  he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, ⁴  he did the same thing. 20:6 And about five o’clock that afternoon ⁵  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 When ⁶  it was evening ⁷  the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give the pay ⁸  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. ⁹  20:10 And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. 20:11 When ¹⁰  they received it, they began to complain ¹¹  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 landowner ¹²  replied to one of them, ¹³  ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage? ¹⁴ 

[20:2]  ¹ tn Grk “agreeing with the workers for a denarius a day.”

[20:2]  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.

[20:3]  ² tn Grk “about the third hour.”

[20:5]  ³ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:5]  ⁴ tn Grk “he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour.”

[20:6]  ⁵ tn Grk “about the eleventh hour.”

[20:8]  ⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:8]  ⁷ sn That is, six o’clock in the evening, the hour to pay day laborers. See Lev 19:13b.

[20:8]  ⁸ tc ‡ Most witnesses (including B D W Θ Ë^1,13 33^vid Ï 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, NA²⁷ includes the pronoun on the basis of the greater external attestation.

[20:9]  ⁹ tn Grk “each received a denarius.” See the note on the phrase “standard wage” in v. 2.

[20:11]  ¹⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:11]  ¹¹ tn The imperfect verb ἐγόγγυζον (egonguzon) has been translated ingressively.

[20:13]  ¹² tn Grk “he”; the referent (the landowner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:13]  ¹³ 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.

[20:13]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “for a denarius a day.”