Matthew 20:3-12

20:3 When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, ¹  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 ²  he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, ³  he did the same thing. 20:6 And about five o’clock that afternoon ⁴  he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ 20:7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’ 20:8 When ⁵  it was evening ⁶  the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give the pay ⁷  starting with the last hired until the first.’ 20:9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay. ⁸  20:10 And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. 20:11 When ⁹  they received it, they began to complain ¹⁰  against the landowner, 20:12 saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’

¹ tn Grk “about the third hour.”

² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

³ tn Grk “he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour.”

³ tn Grk “about the eleventh hour.”

⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁵ sn That is, six o’clock in the evening, the hour to pay day laborers. See Lev 19:13b.

⁶ tc ‡ Most witnesses (including B D W Θ Ë^1,13 33^vid Ï latt sy) have αὐτοῖς (autois, “to them”) after ἀπόδος (apodos, “give the pay”), but this seems to be a motivated reading, clarifying the indirect object. The omission is supported by א C L Z 085 Or. Nevertheless, NA²⁷ includes the pronoun on the basis of the greater external attestation.

⁵ tn Grk “each received a denarius.” See the note on the phrase “standard wage” in v. 2.

⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁷ tn The imperfect verb ἐγόγγυζον (egonguzon) has been translated ingressively.