The Parable of the Tenant Farmers in the Vineyard

³³ “Listen to another parable: There was a man—a master of a house—who planted a vineyard, and put a fence around it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower, and leased it to tenant farmers, and went on a journey. ³⁴ And when the season of fruit drew near, he sent his slaves to the tenant farmers to collect his fruit. ³⁵ And the tenant farmers seized his slaves, one of whom they beat, and one of whom they killed, and one of whom they stoned. ³⁶ Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first ones, and they did the same thing to them. ³⁷ So finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when^[a] the tenant farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance!’ ³⁹ And they seized him and^[b] threw him^[c] out of the vineyard and killed him.^{[d] 40} Now when the master of the vineyard arrives, what will he do to those tenant farmers?” ⁴¹ They said to him, “He will destroy those evil men completely and lease the vineyard to other tenant farmers who will give him the fruits in their season.” ⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures,

⁴³ For this reason, I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and will be given to a people^[g] who produce its fruits. ⁴⁴ And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls—it will crush him!” ⁴⁵ And when^[h] the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them, ⁴⁶ and although they^[i] wanted to arrest him, they were afraid of the crowds, because they looked upon him as a prophet.