³³ Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey. ³⁴When the harvest time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit. ³⁵But the tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. ³⁶Again, he sent other servants, more than the first group. But the tenants did the same to them. ³⁷Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. ³⁸But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance.’ ³⁹So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. ⁴⁰Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard returns, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and will rent out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the fruit at harvest time.” ⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? ⁴³Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. ⁴⁴He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” ⁴⁵When the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they knew that Jesus was speaking about them. ⁴⁶Although they wanted to arrest Him, they were afraid of the crowds, because the people regarded Him as a prophet.