A Story About Workers^(A)

20 “[^LFor] The kingdom of heaven is like a ·person who owned some land [landowner; householder]. One morning, he went out very early to hire some people to work in his vineyard. ² The man agreed to pay the workers ·one coin [^La denarius; ^Ctypical pay for a day laborer] for working that day. Then he sent them into the vineyard to work. ³ About ·nine o’clock [^Lthe third hour] the man went to the marketplace and saw some other people standing there, doing nothing. ⁴ So he said to them, ‘If you go and work in my vineyard, I will pay you ·what your work is worth [^Lwhatever is right].’ ⁵ So they went to work in the vineyard. The man went out again about ·twelve o’clock and three o’clock [^Lthe sixth and ninth hour] and did the same thing. ⁶ About ·five o’clock [^Lthe eleventh hour] the man went to the marketplace again and saw others standing there. He asked them, ‘Why did you stand here all day doing nothing?’ ⁷ They answered, ‘No one ·gave us a job [hired us].’ The man said to them, ‘Then you can go and work in my vineyard.’

⁸ “·At the end of the day [When evening came], the owner of the vineyard said to the ·boss of all the workers [foreman; supervisor; steward], ‘Call the workers and pay them [^Ltheir wage]. Start with the last people I hired and end with those I hired first.’

⁹ “When the workers who were hired at ·five o’clock [^Lthe eleventh hour] came to get their pay, each received ·one coin [^La denarius; v. 2]. ¹⁰ When the workers who were hired first came to get their pay, they ·thought [expected; assumed] they would be paid more than the others. But each one of them also received ·one coin [^La denarius]. ¹¹ When they got their coin, they ·complained to [grumbled at; protested to] the ·man who owned the land [landowner; householder]. ¹² They said, ‘Those people were hired last and worked only one hour. But you ·paid them the same as you paid [^Lmade them equal to] us who ·worked hard all day in the hot sun [^Lbore the burden and heat of the day].’ ¹³ But the man who owned the vineyard said to one of those workers, ‘Friend, I am ·being fair [^Lnot being unfair] to you. ·You agreed [Did you not agree…?] to work for ·one coin [^La denarius; v. 2]. ¹⁴ So take ·your pay [^Lwhat is yours] and go. I ·want [choose] to give the man who was hired last the same pay that I gave you. ¹⁵ ·I can [^LDon’t I have the right to…?] do what I want with ·my own money [^Lwhat is mine]. Are you jealous because I am ·good to those people [generous; ^Lgood]?’

¹⁶ “So those who are last now will someday be first, and those who are first now will someday be last.”