The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

⁹ He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, leased it to some tenant farmers, and went away on a journey for a long time. ¹⁰ When it was the right time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenant farmers beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹ The man went ahead and sent yet another servant, but they also beat him, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. ¹² He then sent yet a third. They also wounded him and threw him out. ¹³ The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I will send my son, whom I love. Perhaps they will respect him.’

¹⁴ “But when the tenant farmers saw him, they talked it over with one another. They said, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.’ ¹⁵ They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. So what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶ He will come and destroy those tenant farmers and give the vineyard to others.”

When they heard this, they said, “May it never be!”

¹⁷ But he looked at them and said, “Then what about this that is written:

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?^[a]

¹⁸ “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush the one on whom it falls.”

¹⁹ That very hour the chief priests and the experts in the law began looking for a way to lay hands on him, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.