CHAPTER 12
Parable of the Tenants
1 He began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, put a
hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to
a tenant farmers and left on a journey.
2 At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them
some of the produce of the vineyard.
3 But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.
4 Again he sent him another servant. And that one they beat over the head
and treated shamefully.
5 He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others, some
they beat, others they killed.
6 He sent him to them last of all, thinking, 'They will respect my son.'
7 But those tenants said to one another, "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him,
and the inheritance will be ours.'
8 So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 What [then] will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants
to death, and give the vineyard to others,
10 Have you not read this scripture passage:
'The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11 by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?"
12 They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for
they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left
him and went away.