[12:1] And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country.
[12:2] When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
[12:3] And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
[12:4] Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.
[12:5] And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed.
[12:6] He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
[12:7] But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
[12:8] And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
[12:9] What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
[12:10] Have you not read this Scripture: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
[12:11] this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
[12:12] And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.