much indeed, and I shall exact from you the punishment you deserve.

When the case of these laborers was put before the people, they said, “The first was an excellent worker; the vineyard owner treated him generously and gave him more than his due wage.

“As for the second,” they said, “the fool did work, yet he left it unfinished. Had he held back from the forbidden fruit, he would have received from the owner what his companion received.”

And of the third they declared, “What a wretched hireling! He neglected what he had been commanded to guard, then ate what he had been forbidden. He fully deserves the evil that has come upon him.”

Thus are your deeds, O assembly of the wise, with respect to what you will face—just as those laborers faced—on the Day when every soul is repaid for what it has earned.