Laborers in the Vineyard

20 “For ^(A)the kingdom of heaven is like ^[a]a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his ^(B)vineyard. ² Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a ^[b]denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And he went out about the ^[c]third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace; ⁴ and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. ⁵ Again he went out about the ^[d]sixth and the ninth hour, and did ^[e]the same thing. ⁶ And about the ^[f]eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he *said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ ⁷ They *said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He *said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

⁸ “Now when ^(C)evening came, the ^[g]owner of the vineyard *said to his ^[h](D)foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ ⁹ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a ^[i]denarius. ¹⁰ And when those hired first came, they supposed that they would receive more; ^[j]but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ Now when they received it, they were grumbling at the landowner, ¹² saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the ^(E)scorching heat.’ ¹³ But he answered and said to one of them, ‘^(F)Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. ¹⁵ Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your ^(G)eye ^[k]envious because I am ^[l]generous?’ ¹⁶ So ^(H)the last shall be first, and the first last.”