Matthew 21

The vineyard tenants

33“Listen to another parable. A landowner planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. He leased it to tenant farmers and went abroad. 34When harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35The tenants seized his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36He sent other slaves, more than before, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39They seized him, threw him outside the vineyard, and killed him. 40So when the vineyard’s owner comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41They told him, “He will bring those evil men to an evil end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at harvest time.” 42Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This came from the Lord,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43That is why I tell you: the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who produce its fruit. 44The one who falls on this stone will be shattered, and anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” 45When the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they knew he was speaking about them. 46They wanted to arrest him, but feared the crowds, who regarded him as a prophet.