Mark 12:1–12

The Parable of the Tenant Farmers in the Vineyard

12And he began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard, and put a fence around it, and dug a trough for the winepress, and built a watchtower, and leased it to tenant farmers, and went on a journey. ²And he sent a slave to the tenant farmers at the proper time, so that he could collect some of the fruit of the vineyard from the tenant farmers. ³And they seized him and^* beat him^* and sent him^* away empty-handed. ⁴And again he sent to them another slave, and that one they struck on the head and dishonored. ⁵And he sent another, and that one they killed. And he sent^* many others, some of whom they beat and some of whom they killed. ⁶He had one more, a beloved son. Last of all he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷But those tenant farmers said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours!’ ⁸And they seized and^* killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹What^a will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenant farmers and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Have you not read this scripture:

‘The stone which the builders rejected,

this has become the cornerstone.^b

¹¹This came about from the Lord,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”^c

¹²And they were seeking to arrest him, and they were afraid of the crowd, because they knew that he had told the parable with reference to them. And they left him and^* went away.