Mark 12:1–12

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.

He sent many others; some they beat and others 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:

‘The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.

¹¹This is from the Lord,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’^a?”

¹²At this, the leaders sought^b to arrest Jesus, for they knew that He had spoken this parable against them. But fearing the crowd, they left Him and went away.