1. He began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey.
2. At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard.
3. But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.
4. Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully.
5. He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed.
6. He had one other to send, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’