Matthew 20
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New International Version

Matthew 20:2-14

2He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

4He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’

5So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing.

6About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

7“ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

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

9“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius.

10So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.

11When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.

12‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?

14Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.

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Commentaries on Matthew 20

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