The Parable of the Tenants

12 bAnd he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted ca vineyard dand put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and eleased it to tenants and fwent into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant1 to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 gAnd they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 gAgain hhe sent to them another servant, and ithey struck him on the head and jtreated him shamefully. 5 gAnd he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, ka beloved son. lFinally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, m‘This is the heir. Come, nlet us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And they took him and killed him and othrew him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? pHe will qcome and destroy the tenants and rgive the vineyard to others. 10 sHave you not read tthis Scripture:

u“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;2

11  this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

12 And vthey were seeking to arrest him wbut feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they xleft him and went away.