Day 54 of 75 · Parables and teaching
ʾ-G-R
agra: reward
אגרא
ܐܓܪܐ
The feel
Agra means wages, reward, or pay, what a hired hand is owed at the end of the day. The same word is used for a day's pay and for reward in the heavens. It appears 15 times in the Gospels.
The root family
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|
| agra | noun, emphatic | agrā | אגרא ܐܓܪܐ | wage, reward | wages · reward · pay (15 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) |
In the Gospels the verb appears in the Peal, egar, to hire, when the landowner goes out to hire workers (Matthew 20:1).
In his voice
Matthew 5:12
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in the heavens is great. They drove out the prophets before you the very same way.
agrkhon saggi ba-shmayya, "your reward in the heavens is great." It is the usual word for a laborer's wages. What those driven out are owed is real, and it is kept for them in the heavens.
Matthew 6:2
So when you give to the poor, don't sound a trumpet ahead of you, the way the actors do in the gatherings and the streets, so that people will praise them. On firm ground, I tell you: they already have their reward in full.
qabbelw agrhon, "they have received their reward." The people's praise was their pay, and nothing more is owed to them.
Matthew 20:8
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." Here agra means wages. Then the parable upsets the pay scale, and those hired last receive the same pay as the first.
Practice
Do one good thing today that no one will see or thank you for, and tell no one about it. Then say agra (AHG rah), reward, aloud.
Connections