Isaiah 5:1-7

Common English Bible

Song of the vineyard

5 Let me sing for my loved one
    a love song for his vineyard.
My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
²He dug it,
    cleared away its stones,
    planted it with excellent vines,
    built a tower inside it,
    and dug out a wine vat in it.
He expected it to grow good grapes—
    but it grew rotten grapes.
³So now, you who live in Jerusalem, you people of Judah,
    judge between me and my vineyard:
⁴What more was there to do for my vineyard
    that I haven’t done for it?
When I expected it to grow good grapes,
    why did it grow rotten grapes?
⁵Now let me tell you what I’m doing to my vineyard.
I’m removing its hedge,
    so it will be destroyed.
I’m breaking down its walls,
    so it will be trampled.
⁶I’ll turn it into a ruin;
    it won’t be pruned or hoed,
    and thorns and thistles will grow up.
I will command the clouds not to rain on it.
⁷The vineyard of the Lord of heavenly forces is the house of Israel,
    and the people of Judah are the plantings in which God delighted.
God expected justice, but there was bloodshed;
    righteousness, but there was a cry of distress!

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Matthew 21:33-46

Common English Bible

Parable of the tenant farmers

³³“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it to tenant farmers and took a trip. ³⁴When it was time for harvest, he sent his servants to the tenant farmers to collect his fruit. ³⁵But the tenant farmers grabbed his servants. They beat some of them, and some of them they killed. Some of them they stoned to death.

³⁶“Again he sent other servants, more than the first group. They treated them in the same way. ³⁷Finally he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

³⁸“But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come on, let’s kill him and we’ll have his inheritance.’ ³⁹They grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

⁴⁰“When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?”

⁴¹They said, “He will totally destroy those wicked farmers and rent the vineyard to other tenant farmers who will give him the fruit when it’s ready.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the scriptures, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this, and it’s amazing in our eyes?^[a] ⁴³Therefore, I tell you that God’s kingdom will be taken away from you and will be given to a people who produce its fruit. ⁴⁴Whoever falls on this stone will be crushed. And the stone will crush the person it falls on.”

⁴⁵Now when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard the parable, they knew Jesus was talking about them. ⁴⁶They were trying to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, who thought he was a prophet.

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