They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.
| Word | Greek | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| They say | λέγουσιν legousin | G3004 | properly · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person plural |
| unto him | αὐτῷ autō | G846 | the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative singular masculine |
| Because | ὅτι hoti | G3754 | demonstrative · conjunction |
| no man | οὐδεὶς oudeis | G3762 | not even one (man · adjective — nominative singular masculine |
| hath hired | ἐμισθώσατο. emisthōsato | G3409 | to let out for wages · verb — aorist middle indicative, 3rd person singular |
| us | ἡμᾶς hēmâs | G2248 | us |
| He saith | λέγει legei | G3004 | properly · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person singular |
| unto them | αὐτοῖς· autois | G846 | the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative plural masculine |
| Go | ὑπάγετε hupagete | G5217 | to lead (oneself) under · verb — present active imperative, 2nd person plural |
| ye | ὑμεῖς hymeîs | G5210 | you (as subjective of verb) |
| also | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| into | εἰς eis | G1519 | to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition |
| the vineyard | ἀμπελῶνα ampelōna | G290 | a vineyard · noun — accusative singular masculine |
| and | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| whatsoever | ὃ ho | G3739 | the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun · relative pronoun — accusative singular neuter |
| is | ὦ ō | G5600 | (may |
| right | δίκαιον dikaion | G1342 | equitable (in character or act) · adjective — nominative singular neuter |
| shall ye receive | λήψεσθε.¶ lēpsesthe | G2983 | while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent · verb — future middle deponent indicative, 2nd person plural |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
And about the eleventh hour--but one hour before the close of the working day; a most unusual hour both for offering and engaging and found others standing idle, and saith, Why stand ye here all the day idle?--Of course they had not been there, or not been disposed to offer themselves at the proper time; but as they were now willing, and the day was not over, and "yet there was room," they also are engaged, and on similar terms with all the rest.
They say unto him, because no man hath hired us,.... This may be fitly applied to the Gentiles, who hundreds of years were neglected by God; he overlooked the times of their ignorance, took no notice of them in their state of stupidity, blindness, and irreligion; but suffered them to walk in their own ways, sent no prophets to instruct them, nor messages, nor messengers to them; till at length the Jews, having rejected and crucified the Messiah, and persecuted his apostles, and contradicted, and blasphemed the Gospel, they were ordered to go to the Gentiles, and preach it to them: he saith unto them, go ye also into the vineyard: the Gospel was made the power of God unto salvation to them;…
Read the whole note in the consoleMatthew 20:1-16 Matthew 20:1-16 1. For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder, who went out at break of day to hire laborers into his vineyard. 2. And having made an agreement with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3. And having gone out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the market-place. 4. And he said to them, Go you also into the vineyard, and whatever shall be right I will give you. 5. And they went away. And again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and acted in the same manner. 6. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and said to them, Why stand you here all the day idle? 7. They say to h…
Read the whole note in the consoleThese then are sent into the vineyard, Go ye also into my vineyard.
At the end of life, which is evening (for the time after Christ's sojourn until the consummation is the time after the eleventh hour, as John says: "It is the last hour"), the householder orders their wages to be given, beginning with the last.
The last ones, receiving the generosity of the Master instead of troubles, are first to receive their reward, since all those after the Lord's coming have become—through baptism and the union with the Spirit—"sharers in God's nature" and are called sons of God.… For the prophets too have become sharers in the Spirit, but not in the same way as the faithful, since the Holy Spirit is in some way like a leaven for the souls of the faithful and changes the entire man to another condition of life. And so we have become "participants in God's nature," and openly we cry "Abba, Father." The more ancient peoples did not receive the same grace. So Paul too says, "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship." The ancients then received a spirit of slavery without the honor of adoption. Since therefore we really are first to receive a denarius, we must of necessity be said to be honored above the rest.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
This parable is similar to the parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32). In both, God’s grace is shown to two parties while one grumbles about unjust treatment.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
