1. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
2. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3. “Then he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
4. and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went.
5. Again he went out about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did likewise.
6. “About the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
7. “They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’“He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’
8. “So when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’
9. “When they who were hired about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius.
10. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more, but each of them likewise received a denarius.
11. When they received it, they grumbled against the landowner,
12. saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us, who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’