Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Barclay, New English Bible, and Phillips begin a new sentence with this verse, though most translations rather slavishly follow the form of the Greek by letting the sentence that begins in verse 3 continue over into this verse.

Barclay has rendered too here as “along with the other men,” something which many other translators may find natural too. Of course, it is implied that these people are expected to work in the vineyard.

Whatever is right (Good News Translation “a fair wage”) is given the place of emphasis in the Greek construction (and whatever is right I will give you). However, most translators put the verb before the object, as Good News Translation has (“I will pay you a fair wage”). The workers automatically would have assumed that they would be given less than the full daily wage of a denarius. One commentator correctly refers to this parable as illustrative of “the surprising righteousness of God,” since what the workers receive at the end of the day far exceeds their expectations.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .