¹Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey. ²At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. ³But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴Then he sent them another servant, and they struck him over the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵He sent still another, and this one they killed. ⁶Finally, having one beloved son, he sent him to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. ⁷But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸So they seized the son, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Have you never read this Scripture: ¹¹This is from the Lord, ¹²At this, the leaders sought to arrest Jesus, for they knew that He had spoken this parable against them. But fearing the crowd, they left Him and went away.