Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 20:12
Saying, These last have wrought [but] one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
12. which have borne the burden and heat of the day ] This may be regarded as man’s estimate of his own merits, which is not the divine estimate. The words echo the tone of “what shall we have?” ch. Mat 19:27.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The burden and heat of the day – The burden means the heavy labor, the severe toil. We have continued at that toil in the heat of the day. The others had worked only a little while, and that in the cool of the evening, and when it was fax more pleasant and much less fatiguing.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
12. Saying, These last have wroughtbut one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have bornethe burden and heatthe burning heat.
of the daywho havewrought not only longer but during a more trying period of the day.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Saying, these last have wrought but one hour,…. Thinking it hard, that they should have the same reward for the service of one hour, others had for the service of many. This is grudged by the Jews x;
“”Bath Kol”, a voice from heaven, went out and said, “Ketiah bar Shallum”, is prepared for the life of the world to come; Rabbi wept, and said, there is that obtains his world (or the world to come for himself) , “in one hour”; and there is that obtains it in many years.”
The same observation is also made by the same person, on account of R. Eleazar ben Durdia y. So in the parable of the Jews above mentioned, which is the broken remains of a common proverb among them like z this; it is observed, that there being one labourer among those that were hired, who did his work better than all the rest, and who was taken notice of by the king; that when
“at even the labourers came to take their wages, this labourer also came to take his; and the king gave him his wages equal with them, (or, as in another place, a perfect one,) the labourers began to press him with difficulty, (or as elsewhere a , “they murmured”,) and said, Oh! our Lord, the king, “we have laboured all the day”; but this man has not laboured but two or three hours in the day, and he takes his wages, even as ours, or a perfect reward.”
And so it follows here,
and thou hast made them equal to us, who have borne the burden and heat of the day; of all the Jewish rites and ceremonies, which were burdensome and intolerable. The ceremonial law was a burden to the Jewish people; the multitude of sacrifices enjoined them, and the frequent repetition of them, together with the great number of other ordinances and institutions, produced a weariness in them; especially in the carnal part of them, who saw not the things typified by them, the use and end of them, and so did not enjoy spiritual pleasure in them, Mal 1:13. It was a yoke, and a yoke of bondage to them, which brought on them a spirit of bondage, through the fear of death, which was the penalty annexed to it; and it was an insupportable one, which neither they, nor their forefathers, were able to bear, because it made them debtors to keep the whole law: and this was made still more burdensome, by the traditions of the elders, which were added to it, and which the Scribes and Pharisees obliged to the observance of; to which they themselves still added, and bound heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and laid them on men’s shoulders. The law was a fiery law, and the dispensation of it was a hot and scorching one; it was uncomfortable working under the flashes of a mount, that burned with fire: the law worked wrath, and possessed the minds of men with a fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation. This may also be applied to such Christians, who are called to more severe service or sufferings for Christ, than others are; who are almost pressed down without measure, and endure fiery trials, are scorched, and made black, with the sun of persecution beating upon them; as the saints under the ten persecutions of the Roman emperors, and as the confessors and martyrs in the times of papal power and cruelty; and who, it might be thought, will have a greater degree of glory and happiness hereafter; and so some have been of opinion, that these are they that shall live and reign with Christ a thousand years,
Re 20:4 But it rather seems, that others will be made equal with them, who have not endured what they have done; for all the dead in Christ, all that have part in the first resurrection, when Christ comes, as all the saints will then rise, will share in that glory; even the innumerable company, chosen, redeemed, and called, out of every nation, tongue, and people, and will be admitted to the same honour and happiness, Re 7:9 And this character will also agree with many other servants of Christ, who are called to harder and more laborious service than others are, and labour more abundantly in the Lord’s vineyard than others do, and are longer employed in it; as for instance, the Apostle Paul; and yet the same crown of righteousness that is laid up for him, and given to him, will be given to all that love the appearance of Christ, though they have not laboured for his name’s sake, as he has done.
x T. Bab. Avoda Zara, fol. 10. 2. y Ib. fol. 17. 1. z Shirhashirim Rabba, fol 21. 4. Midrash Kohelet, fol. 72. 4. a T. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 5. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Equal unto us ( ). Associative instrumental case after . It was a regular protest against the supposed injustice of the householder.
The burden of the day and the scorching wind ( ). These last “did” work for one hour. Apparently they worked as hard as any while at it. A whole day’s work on the part of these sweat-stained men who had stood also the sirocco, the hot, dry, dust-laden east wind that blasted the grain in Pharaoh’s dream (Ge 41:6), that withered Jonah’s gourd (Jon 4:8), that blighted the vine in Ezekiel’s parable (Eze 17:10). They seemed to have a good case.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Heat [] . Rev., the scorching heat. The word is from kaiw, to burn. It refers to the dry, scorching heat born by the east wind. Compare Job 27:21; Hos 13:15. The wind blows from the Arabian desert, parching, dry, exciting the blood, and causing restlessness and sleeplessness. It seldom brings storms, but when it does, they are doubly destructive. During harvest the corn cannot be winnowed if the east wind blows, for it would carry away both chaff and corn. In Pharaoh ‘s dream (Gen 41:6) the ears are blasted by it : Jonah’s gourd is withered by it (Jon 4:8), and the vine in Ezekiel’s parable of the Babylonian captivity is blighted by it (Eze 17:10).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
(12) But one hour.Literally, in what was probably the technical language of labourers, made but one hour:
The burden and heat of the day.The word rendered heat is elsewhere usedas in Jas. 1:11, and the LXX. of Jon. 4:8for the burning wind that often follows on the sunrise, and makes the labour of the first half of the day harder than that of the latter.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Borne the burden The weight of the whole day’s labour instead of a single hour. Heat In the original, the or scorcher; which was the burning east wind coming at midday from the Arabian desert. They had toiled through this hot blast, while the others had laboured only in the one cool hour.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Mat 20:12 . ] recitativc , not because ( , ), inasmuch as the words . . . express the contents of the .
] spoken disdainfully.
] they have spent one hour (Act 15:33 ; Act 18:23 ; 2Co 11:25 ; Ecc 6:12 ; Wetstein on this passage; Schaeffer, ad Bos . p. 313; Jacobs, in Anthol . IX. p. 449, X. p. 44). The ordinary interpretation: they have wrought, laboured , one hour, is in opposition to the terms of the passage (as little is it to be confirmed by an appeal to Rth 2:19 , where means: where hast thou been occupying thyself?); there would have been more reason to interpret thus: they have been doing it (that is, the work) for one hour, if the specifying of the time in connection with had not suggested our explanation as the most obvious and most natural.
. ] Those others had not entered till the evening.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
12 Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
Ver. 12. Thou hast made them equal ] Lo, this is the guise of graceless hypocrites, to be quarrelling and contending with God and man, as unworthily dealt withal. Thus those Jewish justiciaries, Isa 58:3 , hit God in the teeth with their good services and small thanks. So the proud Pharisee sets forth, not his wants, but his worth. Contrariwise, Jacob cries out in a low language, Domine, non sum dignus, Gen 30:10 . So doth Paul, 1Co 15:9 ; the centurion,Mat 8:6Mat 8:6 ; the Baptist, Mat 3:11 . St Augustine, Non sum dignus, quem tu diligas, Domine, Lord, I am not worthy of thy love.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
12. ] Some take , as in Act 15:33 , to mean “ have tarried ,” but the sense in the former reff. seems the best.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 20:12 . heir grievous complaint. , these , with a workman’s contempt for a sham-worker. . Some (Wetstein, Meyer, Goebel, etc.) render, spent = they put in their one hour: without doing any work to speak of. The verb is used in this sense ( e.g. , Act 15:33 ), and one is strongly tempted to adopt this rendering as true to the contemptuous feeling of the twelve-hour men for the one-hour men. Kypke remarks against it that if had been meant in this sense = “commorati sunt,” the word = would have been added. Perhaps the strongest reason against it is that the one-hour men had worked with such good will (that goes without saying) that even prejudiced fellow-workers could not ignore the fact. So we must take = worked. , : these the points of their case: not that they had worked hard while the others had not, but that they had borne the burden of a whole day’s work, and worked through the heat of the day, and now came to be paid, weary and sweat-stained. (Some take as referring to the sirocco or south-east wind; hot, dry and dust-laden. On the winds of Palestine, vide Benzinger, Heb. Arch. , p. 30.) What was one hour in the late afternoon, however hard the last comers worked, to that! And yet they are made equal ( )! Surely good ground for complaint!
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
These = That these. Greek. hoti, putting their words between quotation marks. See note on Luk 23:43.
have wrought but one hour = made one hour. A Hebraism. Compare Rth 2:19, “Where wroughtest thou to-day? “(Hebrew. ‘anah ‘asitha). So, in the sense of making or spending time (Act 15:33; Act 18:23. 2Co 11:25); used for continuing, as suggested in Authorized Version margin. But it is the same word rendered “made” in the next clause.
made them = done to them.
heat = scorching heat.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
12.] Some take , as in Act 15:33, to mean have tarried,-but the sense in the former reff. seems the best.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 20:12. , …, these, etc.) Envy is frequently more anxious to take from another than to obtain for itself. They envy, not those of the ninth, sixth, and third, but only those of the eleventh hour.- , the last) The labourers use this expression from envy.-, have spent) See Act 15:33.[880]-, to us) They speak also for those who had come at the intermediate hours, and who, though they had borne a less burthen than that of the whole day, had yet endured the midday heat.-, burthen) internally, of labour.- , of the day) sc. the whole.-, heat) externally, of the sun.
[880] -, Having tarried a space: as is here taken by Beng. and the margin of our Engl. Bible of continuance of time, These last have continued one hour only.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
wrought but one hour: or, continued one hour only
equal: Luk 14:10, Luk 14:11, Rom 3:22-24, Rom 3:30, Eph 3:6
borne: Isa 58:2, Isa 58:3, Zec 7:3-5, Mal 1:13, Mal 3:14, Luk 15:29, Luk 15:30, Luk 18:11, Luk 18:12, Rom 3:27, Rom 9:30-32, Rom 10:1-3, Rom 11:5, Rom 11:6, 1Co 4:11, 2Co 11:23-28
Reciprocal: Num 23:4 – I have prepared Job 34:33 – whether thou refuse Mat 25:24 – I knew
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
0:12
Made them equal with us was a false accusation. The householder was only carrying out his contract as he had done with them. The “eleventh-hour” men had gone to work at the first opportunity and the others had done no better than that. When they accepted the offer of employment they knew they would have to do a full day’s work which would extend through the hottest part of the work period.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 20:12. These last spent one hour, etc. A well-grounded complaint, if salvation were of works.