¹ "Isn't a man forced to labor on earth? Aren't his days like the days of a hired hand?

⁴ "Yahweh, show me my end, What is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.

⁵ Seeing his days are determined, The number of his months is with you, And you have appointed his bounds that he can't pass;

⁶ Look away from him, that he may rest, Until he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.

¹³ "Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, That you would keep me secret, until your wrath is past, That you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!

¹⁴ If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, Until my release should come.

⁹ Jesus answered, "Aren't there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn't stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

¹⁰ But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn't in him."

¹ "For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, 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 denarius is a silver Roman coin worth 1/25th of a Roman aureus. This was a common wage for a day of farm labor.} a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

³ He went out about the third hour,{Time was measured from sunrise to sunset, so the third hour would be about 9:00 AM.} and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.

⁴ To them he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went their way.

⁵ Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour,{noon and 3:00 P. M.} and did likewise.

⁶ About the eleventh hour{5:00 PM} he went out, and found others standing idle. He said to them, 'Why do you stand here all day idle?'

⁷ "They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' "He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and you will receive whatever is right.'

⁸ When evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last to the first.'

⁹ "When those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius.

¹⁰ When the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise each received a denarius.

¹¹ When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household,

¹² saying, 'These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!'

¹³ "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn't you agree with me for a denarius?

¹⁴ Take that which is yours, and go your way. It is my desire to give to this last just as much as to you.

¹⁵ Isn't it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?'

² Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh's hand double for all her sins.

⁵ Go, and tell Hezekiah, Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: behold, I will add to your days fifteen years.

¹⁶ For thus has the Lord said to me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall fail;

⁸ There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.

⁷ But man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.

¹⁸ It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you; for to the double of the hire of a hireling has he served you six years: and Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do.

⁵⁰ He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him.