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.”
4 tn Grk “about the eleventh hour.”
5 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
6 sn That is, six o’clock in the evening, the hour to pay day laborers. See Lev 19:13b.
7 tc ‡ Most witnesses (including B D W Θ Ë1,13 33vid 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.
8 tn Grk “each received a denarius.” See the note on the phrase “standard wage” in v. 2.
9 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
10 tn The imperfect verb ἐγόγγυζον (egonguzon) has been translated ingressively.