en_tn_condensed/mat/20/15.md

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Connecting Statement:

Jesus concludes his parable about a landowner who hires workers. (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-parables)

Is it not lawful for me to do as I want with what belongs to me?

The landowner uses a question to correct the workers who were complaining. Alternate translation: "It is lawful for me do what I want with my own possessions." (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-rquestion)

Is it not lawful for me

"Do I not have the right" or "Is it not proper." The landowner is reminding the laborers that everyone allows people to do what they wish with their own property. He is not asking if there is a law against what he is doing.

Or is your eye evil because I am good?

The landowner uses a question to rebuke the workers who were complaining. Alternate translation: "Your eye should not be evil because I am good." (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-rquestion)

is your eye evil

A person with an "eye" that is "evil" looks angrily at those whom he envies and so hates. The "evil" here is envy. Alternate translation: "are you envious" or "do you hate me" (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-metonymy)

I am good

In the context here, the reader should understand the landowner being "good" as "generous," the opposite of the laborers being "evil," which is "envious."