Day 54 of 75 · Parables and teaching
ʾ-G-R
agra: reward
אגרא
ܐܓܪܐ
The feel
Agra is wages, reward, pay: the coins a hired hand counts on at day’s end. The same plain word names earthly hire and heavenly reward. Praise can pay you in full, closing the account. Every act asks: who are you working for, and where do you expect to collect?
The root family
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|
| agra | noun, emphatic | agrā | אגרא ܐܓܪܐ | wage, reward | wages · reward · pay (19 occurrences) |
| agira | noun, qṭilā pattern | agirā | אגירא ܐܓܝܪܐ | hireling | hired hand (John 10:12–13) |
| egar | Peal verb | egar | אגר ܐܓܪ | to hire | to hire (the landowner of Matthew 20:1) |
Paradigm forms are a teaching scaffold from standard Aramaic grammar; corpus-attested words above are drawn from the glossary.
The verb stems
| Stem | Form | Sense |
|---|
| Peal | egar | to hire: the Peshitta's verb when the landowner goes out to hire workers (Matthew 20:1) |
| Ethpeel | — | not attested in this corpus |
| Pael / Ethpaal | — | not attested in this corpus |
| Aphel / Ettaphal | — | not attested in this corpus; the nouns agra and agira carry most of the family's weight |
Stem table is a grammar scaffold: how Aramaic bends one root through voice and cause.
In his voice
Matthew 5:12 · interlinear
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great. They hunted the prophets before you the very same way.
agrkhon saggi ba-shmayya : "your reward in heaven is great." The laborer's word for wages, aimed upward: what the hunted are owed is real and held on account.
Matthew 6:2 · interlinear
So when you give to the poor, don't sound a trumpet ahead of you, the way the actors do in the gathering places and the streets, fishing for the praise of people. Amen, I tell you: they already have their reward in full.
qabbelw agrhon : "they have received their reward." The books balance to zero: paid in applause, nothing further owed.
Matthew 20:8 · interlinear
When evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his foreman, "Call the workers and give them their pay: start with the last and go to the first."
hab lhon agrhon : "give them their pay." Agra at its plainest, and then the parable breaks the pay scale: the last hired receive the same.
Practice
Tonight, notice your quiet ledger: who saw, who thanked you, who owes you. Leave one unthanked act hidden, trusting the Father’s generous accounting.
Say agra as AHG rah: a plain payroll word for wages, reward, or pay.
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.