Day 53 of 75 · Parables and teaching
P-ʿ-L
paʿla: worker
פעלא · פעלא
ܦܥܠܐ · ܦ݁ܳܥܠܶܐ
The feel
Paʿla is a laborer: a hired worker in field or vineyard, working for wages. You meet them at dawn in the marketplace, hands empty, hoping for work. The corpus chooses this humble word for needed people. The root also gives the Aramaic verb patterns their names: peal, pael, aphel.
The root family
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|
| Noun, "laborer" | doer pattern, singular | pāʿlā | פעלא ܦ݁ܳܥܠܳܐ | worker | laborer · worker · hired hand |
| Noun plural, "laborers" | doer pattern, plural | pāʿle | פעלא ܦ݁ܳܥܠܶܐ | workers | the laborers (Mt 9:37–38; Mt 20:1) |
Paradigm forms are a teaching scaffold from standard Aramaic grammar; corpus-attested words above are drawn from the glossary and the interlinear (Mt 9:37–38; Mt 20:1; Lk 10:7).
The verb stems
| Stem | Force | Form here | Sense |
|---|
| Peal | simple active | pʿal | to work, to do: classical lexica; in this corpus the root lives as its noun, paʿla |
| Ethpeel | simple passive | — | not attested in this corpus |
| Pael | intensive | — | not attested in this corpus |
| Ethpaal | intensive passive | — | not attested in this corpus |
| Aphel | causative | — | not attested in this corpus |
| Ettaphal | causative passive | — | not attested in this corpus |
| Shaphel | rare causative | — | not attested in this corpus |
Stem table is a grammar scaffold: how Aramaic bends one root through voice and cause. The stem names themselves (peal, pael, aphel…) are this root p-ʿ-l serving as the grammarians' template verb.
In his voice
Matthew 9:38
So beg the Master of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest."
pāʿle , "workers": what the great harvest lacks is not miracle but labor, and the asking is addressed to the harvest's own Master.
Matthew 20:1
The reign of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
pāʿle , "workers," with dneʾgur , "to hire": the wage-root that becomes its own lesson tomorrow. The reign is compared to a hiring.
Luke 10:7
Stay in that same house, eating and drinking what they set before you, for the worker is worth his wages. Don't move from house to house.
pāʿlā … ʾagreh , "the worker … his wages": the laborer's dignity stated as law; the sent-out students are told to receive like hired hands, not like beggars.
Practice
Name three people whose work carries your day. Take one breath for each, then thank one person plainly for what they do.
Say paʿla aloud: name the worker, see the labor, honor its worth.
Connections
Witness note: the forms above rest on the Peshitta as the primary witness, with Palestinian Aramaic attestation marked where a Western source carries the word.