³⁷ Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

³⁸ “But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’^{(A) 39} So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰ Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”

⁴¹ “He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told Him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his produce at the harvest.”^[a](B)

Jesus’ Lamentation over Jerusalem

³⁷ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem!^(A) She who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks^[a] under her wings, yet you were not willing!^(B)

³⁸ See, your house is left to you desolate.^(A)

The Destruction of Jerusalem

²⁰ “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies,^(A) then recognize that its desolation^(B) has come near. ²¹ Then those in Judea must flee^(C) to the mountains!^(D) Those inside the city^[a] must leave it, and those who are in the country must not enter it, ²² because these are days of vengeance^(E) to fulfill all the things that are written. ²³ Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days,^(F) for there will be great distress in the land^[b] and wrath against this people. ²⁴ They will fall by the edge of the sword^(G) and be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles^[c](H) until the times of the Gentiles^(I) are fulfilled.

²⁸ But turning to them, Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem,^(A) do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and your children. ²⁹ Look, the days are coming^(B) when they will say, ‘The women without children, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed, are fortunate!’^{(C) 30} Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’^{(D)[a] 31} For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”^(E)