vineyard

The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated as “vineyard” in English is translated in Noongar as boodjer-djildjiyang, lit. “land for fruit.” (Source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018).

See also vine.

complete verse (Matthew 20:4)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 20:4:

  • Uma: “He said to them: ‘Go work in my field, I will give you an appropriate wage.’ They went too.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “He said to them, ‘Go also and work on my land and I will pay you a wage that is right for you.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And he said to them, ‘Work in my grapefield, and I will pay you what’s right.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “He said to them, ‘If you want to go day-work in my vineyard, I will pay you correctly.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “He arranged with them saying, ‘You also work there in my plantation. I will fit your wage (to the work).'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “He said to them: ‘Go to work in my field, men. I will pay you what is proper for you to earn,’ he said. These then went to go to work.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Mairasi: “And then he himself said to them: ‘All of you guys go to my grape farm [and] work! I will give you the true wage’ said he. Therefore they themselves went to the farm.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)

The Late-Arriving Workers

Following is a 1973 painting of the JESUS MAFA project, a response to New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings:

From Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Image retrieved March 23, 2026. Original source: librairie-emmanuel.fr.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Matthew 20:4

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Matthew 20:4



20:4a

You also go into my vineyard: These words imply that the master asked the second group of men to go and work in his vineyard. In some languages, it will be more natural to make this explicit. For example:

You also go and work in my vineyard (New International Version)
-or-
If you go and work in my vineyard (New Century Version)

20:4b

pay: In this context, this verb clearly refers to paying the men for their work. Use an expression that is natural in your language here. For example:

give (English Standard Version)
-or-
give as pay

whatever is right: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as right also means “just, good, proper.” The master of the house did not agree to a specific amount with these men. But he promised that he would act in a just manner toward them.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

whatever is good/appropriate
-or-
whatever is fair (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
whatever is correct/proper

General Comment on 20:4a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to use indirect speech here. For example:

He told them to go ⌊and work⌋ in his vineyard and he would pay them what is right.

-or-

He said he would pay them what was fair, if they would work in his vineyard. (Contemporary English Version)

© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.