30 “But many people who are first will end up last, and the last will be first,[ref] 20 because the heavenly kingdom is like a landowner who came out in the morning to hire labourers to work in his vineyard. 2 They all agreed on the rate for the day, and then he sent them off to work in his vineyard. 3 Then around 9am he noticed some others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and he told them, ‘You can go and work in the vineyard, and I’ll pay you all a fair wage.’ 5 So they went off. Then he came out around midday, and again at 3pm, and did the same. 6 When he came out around 5pm, and there were still people just standing around, he asked them, ‘Why have you been idly standing here all day?’ 7 ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they said. So he also sent them off to work in the vineyard.

8 “In the evening, the landowner instructed his manager, ‘Call the workers and give them their wages,[ref] starting with the last to start work, and ending with the first.’ 9 The ones who’d started late afternoon each received the day’s wage that the first workers had been promised, 10 so those first ones expected they’d receive more, but they all got the same day’s wage. 11 When they got theirs, the first workers started grumbling about the landowner, 12 and complained, ‘These last ones only worked an hour, and yet you paid them the same as us who worked the entire day right through the scorching heat!’ 13 ‘Buddy,’ he said to one of them, ‘I’m not cheating you. Didn’t you agree to work for me for the usual daily wage? 14 Take what we agreed on and go, but I wanted to give these last workers the same amount. 15 Or aren’t I permitted to do what I want with my own money? Or do you look at me maliciously just because I’m generous?’

16 “So that’s how the last will be first, and the first will be last.”[ref]