Text -- Matthew 20:1-6 (NET)

Workers in the Vineyard

20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 20:2 And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 20:3 When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, 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 he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, he did the same thing. 20:6 And about five o’clock that afternoon he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Mat 20:1

¹ sn The term landowner here refers to the owner and manager of a household.

NET Notes: Mat 20:2

¹ tn Grk “agreeing with the workers for a denarius a day.”

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.

NET Notes: Mat 20:3

¹ tn Grk “about the third hour.”

NET Notes: Mat 20:5

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

² tn Grk “he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour.”

NET Notes: Mat 20:6

¹ tn Grk “about the eleventh hour.”