Matthew 20:15

Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — The landowner addresses the first hired workers who are complaining about receiving the same wage as the last hired workers. He speaks immediately after telling them to take their pay and leave.

The words — ἔξεστὴν (exestin) means “it is lawful” and ὃ θέλω (ho thelō) translates to “what I want.” These terms establish the speaker’s legal authority and personal prerogative over his property.

The thread — The declaration parallels Exodus 33:19 and Romans 9:15, where God asserts His sovereign right to dispense mercy and goodness as He chooses. It stands in tension with Deuteronomy 15:9, which warns against withholding generosity due to resentment.

Why it lands — The landowner forces the complainants to confront their resentment rather than defend their own sense of fairness. The text demands that readers examine whether they measure justice by contractual entitlement or by the giver’s generous discretion.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?

Cross-references

Romans 9:15 For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
Deuteronomy 15:9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
Exodus 33:19 “I will cause all My goodness to pass before you,” the LORD replied, “and I will proclaim My name—the LORD—in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
Matthew 6:23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Mark 7:22 greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.
Jonah 4:1 Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry.
John 17:2 For You granted Him authority over all people, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him.
Deuteronomy 7:6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.
1 Chronicles 28:4 Yet the LORD, the God of Israel, chose me out of all my father’s house to be king over Israel forever. For He chose Judah as leader, and from the house of Judah He chose my father’s household, and from my father’s sons He was pleased to make me king over all Israel.
Proverbs 23:6 Do not eat the bread of a stingy man, and do not crave his delicacies;