The Lord Sends Food from Heaven

16 On the fifteenth day of the second month after the Israelites had escaped from Egypt, they left Elim and started through the western edge of the Sinai Desert^[a] in the direction of Mount Sinai. ² There in the desert they started complaining to Moses and Aaron, ³ “We wish the Lord had killed us in Egypt. When we lived there, we could at least sit down and eat all the bread and meat we wanted. But you have brought us out here into this desert, where we are going to starve.”

^4 (A) The Lord said to Moses, “I will send bread^[b] down from heaven like rain. Tell the people to go out each day and gather only enough for that day. That's how I will see if they obey me.

⁹ Moses turned to Aaron and said, “Bring the people together, because the Lord has heard their complaints.”

¹⁰ Aaron was speaking to them, when everyone looked out toward the desert and saw the bright glory of the Lord in a cloud.

¹³ That evening a lot of quails came and landed everywhere in the camp, and the next morning dew covered the ground. ¹⁴ After the dew had gone, the desert was covered with thin flakes that looked like frost. ^15 (A) The people had never seen anything like this, and they started asking each other, “What is it?”^[a]

Moses answered, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

Workers in a Vineyard

20 As Jesus was telling what the kingdom of heaven would be like, he said:

Early one morning a man went out to hire some workers for his vineyard. ² After he had agreed to pay them the usual amount for a day's work, he sent them off to his vineyard.

³ About nine that morning, the man saw some other people standing in the market with nothing to do. ⁴ He promised to pay them what was fair, if they would work in his vineyard. ⁵ So they went.

At noon and again about three in the afternoon he returned to the market. And each time he made the same agreement with others who were loafing around with nothing to do.

⁶ Finally, about five in the afternoon the man went back and found some others standing there. He asked them, “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?”

⁷ “Because no one has hired us,” they answered. Then he told them to go work in his vineyard.

^8 (A) That evening the owner of the vineyard told the man in charge of the workers to call them in and give them their money. He also told the man to begin with the ones who were hired last. ⁹ When the workers arrived, the ones who had been hired at five in the afternoon were given a full day's pay.

¹⁰ The workers who had been hired first thought they would be given more than the others. But when they were given the same, ¹¹ they began complaining to the owner of the vineyard. ¹² They said, “The ones who were hired last worked for only one hour. But you paid them the same that you did us. And we worked in the hot sun all day long!”

¹³ The owner answered one of them, “Friend, I didn't cheat you. I paid you exactly what we agreed on. ¹⁴ Take your money now and go! What business is it of yours if I want to pay them the same that I paid you? ¹⁵ Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Why should you be jealous, if I want to be generous?”

^16 (B) Jesus then said, “So it is. Everyone who is now last will be first, and everyone who is first will be last.”