From wwh [Dr. Bill]

Preamble: Anu explains in his AWAD today that "eleventh hour", meaning "the last moment", comes from:

From the parable in the Bible where laborers hired at the eleventh hour of the twelve-hour workday were paid the same as those hired earlier.

From Dr Bill:

And it occurred to me that I did not know etymology of
'parable', so looked it up in online etymology dictionary:
parable c.1325, "saying or story in which something is expressed in terms of something else," from O.Fr. parable, from L. parabola "comparison," from Gk. parabole "a comparison, parable," lit. "a throwing beside," from para-"alongside" + bole "a throwing, casting," related to ballein "to throw." Replaced O.E. bispell. In V.L. parabola took on the meaning "word," hence It. parlare, Fr. parler "to speak."

Interesting that O.E.'bispell' disappeared, while German still has 'Beispiel' = example.