Shared Word Translation
Matthew 21
The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
“Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. When the season of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to receive his fruit. And the tenants took his servants; one they beat, another they killed, and another they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take possession of his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him outside the vineyard and killed him.
Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “Those evil men—he will bring them to an evil end, and he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures,
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this came from the Lord,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but the one on whom it falls, it will crush.”
And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to seize him, they feared the crowds, because the crowds regarded him as a prophet.