The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved
touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and
planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and
also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes,
and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah,
judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have
not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes,
brought it forth wild grapes?
5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my
vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and
break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor
digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the
clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of
Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment,
but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
33 Hear another parable: There was a certain householder,
which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in
it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far
34 And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his
servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.
35 And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and
killed another, and stoned another.
36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and
they did unto them likewise.
37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They
38 But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among
themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his
39 And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard,
40 When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will
he do unto those husbandmen?
41 They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked
men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render
him the fruits in their seasons.
42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the
scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head
of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be
taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken:
but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
45 And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his
parables, they perceived that he spake of them.
46 But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the
multitude, because they took him for a prophet.
