Bible Strands
Matthew 20:5
So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The vineyard owner addresses idle laborers in the marketplace, instructing them to enter his work site after already hiring workers at the third, sixth, and ninth hours.
The words — ἐξελθὼν (exelthōn) translates as "having gone out," denoting the owner's deliberate departure from his house to issue the hiring command. περὶ ἕκτην (peri hektēn) literally means "about the sixth," marking the specific midday timeframe of this hiring round.
The thread — The sixth-to-ninth hour motif appears in the crucifixion narratives to mark the period of darkness over the land (Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44).
Why it lands — The text records the owner's repeated hiring without yet revealing the wage arrangement, requiring the reader to observe the pattern before the parable's resolution.
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
Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
Cross-references
- Joshua 24:2 And Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods.
- Mark 15:33 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.
- Luke 23:44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour.
- Acts 3:1 One afternoon Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
- Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
- Genesis 12:1 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.
- 2 Chronicles 33:12 And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.
- Matthew 27:45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.
- John 1:39 “Come and see,” He replied. So they went and saw where He was staying, and spent that day with Him. It was about the tenth hour.
- John 4:6 Since Jacob’s well was there, Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.