Chapter LIII.
THE LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD.
[Mat. 20, 1 — 16.]
AMONG the many parables addressed by our Lord to the Jews occurs the following:
“The kingdom of heaven is like to a husbandman, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. When he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour[1], and saw others standing idle in the market-place[2]. And he said to them: ‘Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just.’ And they went. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did in like manner. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and said to them: ‘Why stand you here all the day idle?’ They answered: ‘Because no man hath hired us.’ He said to them: ‘Go you also into my vineyard.’
“Now when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward: ‘Call the labourers, and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first.’ When, therefore, they came who had come about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should have received more, and they likewise received every man a penny. However, when they received it, they murmured against the master of the house, saying: ‘These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heat.’ But he addressed one of them: ‘Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine[3] and go thy way. I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is thy eye evil because I am good?’”
