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Matthew 20:1-5
New International Version
Matthew 20:1-5
New International Version
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like(A) a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.(B) 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing.
Footnotes
- Matthew 20:2 A denarius was the usual daily wage of a day laborer.
Matthew 20:1-5
New Catholic Bible
Matthew 20:1-5
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 20
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.[a] 1 “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius[b] a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 Going out about nine o’clock,[c] he saw some others standing idle in the marketplace. 4 He said to them, ‘You also go into my vineyard and I will give you what is just.’ 5 When he went out again around noon and at three in the afternoon,[d] he did the same.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Matthew 20:1 The parable of the workers in the vineyard teaches that the promised kingdom is a gift of grace and not a wage. For salvation is not the fruit of a commercial contract but consists in a communion of love, a filial response on the part of humans to the initiative of God, who offers them his friendship. Christians who do good cannot boast of rights before God. They should merely do all they can to correspond with God’s call and render themselves ever less unworthy of his friendship.
- Matthew 20:2 Denarius: a Roman coin that was the normal daily wage at the time—what a Roman soldier also received.
- Matthew 20:3 Nine o’clock: literally, “the third hour.”
- Matthew 20:5 Noon . . . three in the afternoon: literally, “the sixth hour . . . the ninth hour.”
New International Version (NIV) 
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