The Parable of the Tenants

¹bAnd he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted ca vineyard dand put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and eleased it to tenants and fwent into another country. ²When the season came, he sent a servant1 to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ³gAnd they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴gAgain hhe sent to them another servant, and ithey struck him on the head and jtreated him shamefully. ⁵gAnd he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. ⁶He had still one other, ka beloved son. lFinally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷But those tenants said to one another, m‘This is the heir. Come, nlet us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸And they took him and killed him and othrew him out of the vineyard. ⁹What will the owner of the vineyard do? pHe will qcome and destroy the tenants and rgive the vineyard to others. ¹⁰sHave you not read tthis Scripture:

u“‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;2

¹¹this was the Lord's doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

¹²And vthey were seeking to arrest him wbut feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they xleft him and went away.

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