Matthew 21:33-46

33“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to tenant farmers and went on a journey [to another country].

34When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his [share of the] fruit.

35But the tenants took his servants and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.

36Again he sent other servants, more than the first time; and they treated them the same way.

37Finally he sent his own son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son and have regard for him.’

38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This [man] is the heir; come on, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’

39So they took the son and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

40Now when the owner of the vineyard comes back, what will he do to those tenants?”

41They said to Him, “He will put those despicable men to a miserable end, and rent out the vineyard to other tenants [of good character] who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”

42Jesus asked them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The [very] Stone which the builders rejected and threw away, Has become the chief Cornerstone; This is the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous and wonderful in our eyes’?

43Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to [another] people who will produce the fruit of it.

44And he who falls on this Stone will be broken to pieces; but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was talking about them.

46And although they were trying to arrest Him, they feared the people, because they regarded Jesus as a prophet.