1 Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.
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At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
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But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
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Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully.
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He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
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“He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
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“But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
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So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
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“What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.
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Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
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the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’[a]?”
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Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.