The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 274

longest and shortost division of the so-called stages of the life or the individue.l. (Bee Jewish "hour" was twenty-two minutes. on this below.) It Is usu11.l to consider the Hebrew d11,y ns Ver. 7.-No me.n hath hired us. A poor !Bating from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., the sixth excuse, bece.use, h&d they been at their post hour oorresponding to our noon, the first e11.rlier, work would have been offered them. hour being 7 o'clock 11.nd the third 9 11..m. Go ye e.lao into the vineyard. The house- 'il'his estimate, though not absolutely correct, holder e.ccepts the excuse, 11.nd, now that is ne11.r enough to the fuct to serve 11.U ex- they e.re desiring to labour, engages them pository pW'poses. The four periods men- as the others, promising to gi vc them what tioned in the p11.re.ble are qu11.rters of the is fail'. Their present willingness seems working de.y, in which a proportional part to compensate for their previous tardiness. of-the day's wages might be earned. Stand- The cl11.use, "wh11.tsoever is right," etc., is ing idle in the market-place. The Greek omitted by some good manuscripts, tbe Vul- 11.gom, the Bom11.n forum, e.nd the Ee.stem g11.te, and other versions. Th us no mention market-place, was the usual place where of reward is made to these-they were satis- idlers and expect11.nt labourers gathered fied by being employed at all. together. Such a scene me.y often nowa- Ver. 8.-When even was oome. Accord- days be witnessed in Oriental cities, and ing to MosBic Law (Deut. xxiv. 15), 11, hired indeed at our own docks, and in m11.ny labourer was to be paid his wages at sunset, of our small country towns. It must be l.e. at the twelfth hour. Steward. The supposed that the labourers now hired lord himself is said to have hired the either were not present when the house- le.bourere, but he commits the payment of holder first went forth, or that they bad them to his stew11.rd, 11.B his representative, then rejected his offer, but now thought to whom such matters of det.ail were en- better of it. And so, in the case of tho trusted. J'rom the last. Those last hired others 111.ter on. were first to receive their hire (-r~v µ«r9&v), Ver. 4.-Ye also; implying th11.t he had that which it had been 11.greed to pay them, alre11.dy set some to work at fixed wages. in one case "a penny," in the others "that Wh11.tsoever is right (al,c1110v); jllllt e.nd fair. which we.s just." Why the last are re- He offers these no definite sum BS remune- w11.rded first is one of the difficulties of the r11.tion, 6SSUring them only that he will deal p11,ra.hle. To say that this is done because equitably with them; i.e. doubtless, accord- in their one hour's work they did more ing to their view, that he will give them thBD all the rest, is a solution which is three quarters of a d11.y's wages, paying supported by nothing in the story itself. them pro rata. But e.t the end he treats Ir sliould, in the primary interpretation, them muoh more generously. Lightfoot ratliAr be oonceived as depending on the notes that the Talmudists had .traols on the lord's good pleasure. p11.yment 11.nd regulation of labourers, and Ver. 9.-They received every man a. penny. in their canons distinguished between being The stewe.rd, of course, was acting accord- hired for e. d11.y and for some hoW"s. They ing to his master's instructions (though went their way, quite s11.tisned to leave nothing is said of any previous orders on their remuneration to the householder, with the subject) when he thus bounteously whom probably they were acquBinted. remunerated those th11.t had been hired at Ver. 5.-Sixth 11.nd ninth hour. At midd11,y the eleventh hour. Some oomment11.tora a.nd 3 p.m., which would give respectively he.ve cnd011.voured to show that the" penny" about h11.lf 11, day's 11.Dd a. quarter of a day's allotted to each set differed gre11.tly in value; work. but tliis is an unwarmnt,\ble conjecture, Ver. 6.-The eleventh hour; the hoW" and it is indispens11.ble to the purport of the before sunset, say a.bout 5 p.m., leaving parable the.t the wages should be alike ouly one hour for work, when it would be to 11.ll most unusu11.l to eng11.ge 111.bourers. Idle. Ver. 10.-They supposed the.t they llhould The word is omitted in some manuscripts, h11.ve received more. The text varies be- There is some reproach in the master's tween .,,,._,iov (plus, Vulgate) and .,,,._,fo.,m. question. Where were they earlier iu the the former implyiug "a gr011.ter sum " than de.y, when he w11.s hiring labourers for his the stated hire, th11 111.tter hinting indefi- vineyard? Why were they not in the nitely at "more" th.i.ngs, more in number. market-place, like their comrades, looking Seeing the liberal (>'\ym0ut given to tlio 11ut for employment? Such questions, like others, they expecte'1 some increase in the many others in the pare.hie, are left un- wages offered to t'tt~mselves, or 11,n ad- answered. We see from the universal use ditional remuneration of some kind. of the term," the eleventh hour," to express Ver. 11.-They murmured. They com- the close of the day of gre.ce, how widely pll\ined 11.loud of the injlliltioe to which, 11.s b11.s prevailed the interpretation of the they thought, they were subjected. This pu.re.ble which applies it to the various is one of those traits in the parable which.  278 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [oR. xx. 1-34,