Thematic Bible: Employee


Thematic Bible




"Listen to another parable: There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. He leased it to tenant farmers and went away. When the grape harvest drew near, he sent his slaves to the farmers to collect his fruit. But the farmers took his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. read more.
Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first group, and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said. "But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance!' So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?" "He will completely destroy those terrible men," they told Him, "and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his produce at the harvest."

Isn't mankind consigned to forced labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand? Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hired man he waits for his pay. So I have been made to inherit months of futility, and troubled nights have been assigned to me.

look away from him and let him rest
so that he can enjoy his day like a hired hand.

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the workers on one denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. read more.
To those men he said, 'You also go to my vineyard, and I'll give you whatever is right.' So off they went. About noon and at three, he went out again and did the same thing. Then about five he went and found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?' " 'Because no one hired us,' they said to him. " 'You also go to my vineyard,' he told them. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, 'Call the workers and give them their pay, starting with the last and ending with the first.' "When those who were hired about five came, they each received one denarius. So when the first ones came, they assumed they would get more, but they also received a denarius each. When they received it, they began to complain to the landowner: 'These last men put in one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day and the burning heat!' "He replied to one of them, 'Friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Didn't you agree with me on a denarius? Take what's yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my business? Are you jealous because I'm generous?'

The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and doesn't own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. [This happens] because he is a hired man and doesn't care about the sheep.





Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him any.


Later, when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, “The Lord be with you.”

“The Lord bless you,” they replied.

When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger!

I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired hands.’


Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers.