What Does Luke 20:9 Mean?
Then he began to speak this parable to the people. A certain man planted a vineyard and let it out to those who work the soil, and went away into a distant land for a long time.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time.THE KEY
The vineyard is planted before it is leased, so those who tend it receive responsibility without becoming its source.
THE MEANING
The vineyard you tend is something you receive before it is something you produce. Its owner’s distance can last a long time, but it does not erase the entrusted work or the one who planted it. The interval makes your response to what is placed in your hands visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Time without the owner’s presence does not turn what is leased into what is owned.
THE ROOT
ἐξέδετο
exedeto
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give or grant.
“let it out” in this verse is exedeto. The KJV’s “let it forth” is lease language: ἐξέδετο (exedeto) comes from ἐκδίδωμι (ekdidōmi), formed from ἐκ (ek, out) and δίδωμι (didōmi, give). The workers receive use of the vineyard while its planter remains its owner; the long absence is entrusted time, not a transfer of origin.
ALSO GROWS
ekdidōmi: To lease out or let for rent.
ἐκδίδωμι
This is the verb behind “let it forth,” naming the workers’ use of the vineyard as granted.
paradidōmi: To hand over or deliver.
παραδίδωμι
This related compound makes the handover of responsibility visible without erasing the planter’s claim.
dosis: A giving or gift.
δόσις
This noun from the same word family keeps the act of leasing connected to something given.
γεωργοῖς
geōrgois
GROWS FROM
ἔργον / ἐργ- (ergon / erg-)
Work, labor, or deed; γεωργός combines γῆ (gē, earth) with ἔργον (ergon, work).
“those who work the soil” in this verse is geōrgois. The Greek word for “husbandmen” names them as earth-workers. Their role is defined by tending the vineyard, while the preceding planting belongs to someone else.
ALSO GROWS
ergon: Work or deed.
ἔργον
It is the work element in γεωργός, exposing the labor inside the translated title.
ergazomai: To work or labor.
ἐργάζομαι
This related verb carries the same work-root, emphasizing that the tenants are defined by their labor.
geōrgos: Farmer or earth-worker.
γεωργός
This is the singular form of the verse’s word, making the workers’ relation to the land explicit.
ἐφύτευσεν
ephyteusen
GROWS FROM
φυτεύω / φυτ- (phyteuō / phyt-)
To plant or establish growing life.
“planted” in this verse is ephyteusen. The planting happens before the tenant arrangement: living growth is already established when the workers arrive. English can make planting and tending feel like parts of one task, while the Greek makes the prior act of establishment clear.
ALSO GROWS
phyton: A plant.
φυτόν
This noun from the same word family names the living growth that the planter establishes.
phyteia: A planting or plantation.
φυτεία
This branch carries the idea of an established planting, the work that precedes the tenants’ tending.
THE PATTERN
Cultivation can be entrusted to workers while the source of the planting and its claim remain with its maker.
And he dug around it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with the red vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and hollowed out a winepress within it. And he waited for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth stinking grapes.Hear another parable. There was a man, master of a house, who planted a vineyard and fenced it round about, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to those who work the soil, and went away to a far country.I planted, Apollos gave to drink, but God made it grow.THE THREAD
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah the planting of his delight. He waited for judgment, but behold, spilled blood. He waited for alignment, but behold, a cry.Luke’s ἀμπελών (ampelōn, vineyard) and the Greek text of Isaiah’s ἄμπελος (ampelos, vine) share the ἀμπελ- vine word. Isaiah names the planting as the LORD’s people and the fruit sought as justice and righteousness, opening the tenant scene as a question about what a community produces under entrusted care.
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