Matthew 20:3-12

3About the third hour1 he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he said, ‘and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5So they went.

He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour2 and did the same thing.

6About the eleventh hour3 he went out and found still others standing around. ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ he asked.

7‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

So he told them, ‘You also go into my vineyard.’4

8When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last ones hired and moving on to the first.’

9The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10So when the original workers came, they assumed they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarius.

11On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’