What Does Matthew 20:5 Mean?
Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
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
Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.THE KEY
The householder keeps going out, so the later hours remain open to the same call.
THE MEANING
The householder goes out at the sixth and ninth hours and repeats the same act. A later hour still holds the possibility of being met by the call; its timing does not make it lesser.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that missing the first moment means every later opening is closed.
THE ROOT
ἐξῆλθεν
exēlthen
GROWS FROM
ἐξέρχομαι (exerchomai), from ἐκ (ek, “out of”) + ἔρχομαι (erchomai, “come, go”)
To come or go; with ἐκ, “out of,” the compound means to go out or come forth.
The verse’s “went out” carries outward movement: the householder leaves his place and goes to meet workers. Repeating that movement at different hours reveals a reach that continues through the day.
ALSO GROWS
erchomai: Come, go, arrive.
ἔρχομαι
This is the movement at the center of “went out”; the prefix gives that movement its outward direction.
eiserchomai: Enter, go in.
εἰσέρχομαι
It shares the same “come, go” root, while its prefix turns the movement inward; the verse’s ἐκ instead sends the householder outward.
exerchomai: Go out, come forth.
ἐξέρχομαι
This is the verb used here: the householder goes out again, carrying the same purpose into another hour.
THE PATTERN
The call keeps extending across changing hours, so arriving later does not place a person beyond reach.
For the governance of the heavens is like a man who is master of a house, who went out at first light to hire workers for his vineyard.But to Israel he says, All day long I have spread out my hands to a people who will not yield and who answer back.Seek the LORD while he may be found, call out to him while he is near.THE THREAD
For the governance of the heavens is like a man who is master of a house, who went out at first light to hire workers for his vineyard.Matthew 20:1 and 20:5 use the same Greek verb, ἐξέρχομαι (exerchomai), “go out.” The first going out begins the search; this verse shows the same outward movement returning at later hours.
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