The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

⁹oAnd he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted pa vineyard and qlet it out to tenants and rwent into another country for a long while. ¹⁰When the time came, he sent a servant2 to the tenants, so that qthey would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. sBut the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹tAnd she sent another servant. But they also beat and utreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. ¹²sAnd he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. ¹³Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my vbeloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ ¹⁴But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, w‘This is the heir. xLet us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ ¹⁵And they ythrew him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶zHe will acome and destroy those tenants and bgive the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” ¹⁷But he clooked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written:

d“‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone’?3

¹⁸eEveryone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls fon anyone, it will crush him.”

Paying Taxes to Caesar

¹⁹hThe scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.

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