33 “Listen to another parable: A landowner planted a vineyard and fenced it, and he carved a wine-pressing pit into it and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to tenant farmers and moved away.[ref] 34 At harvest time, he sent some of his slaves to the tenant farmers to bring back his share of the harvest. 35 However, the tenants grabbed his slaves and beat them. They killed some and threw rocks at others. 36 So the owner sent a larger group of slaves, but the tenants did the same things to them.

37 “Next, he sent his son, because he thought his son would have influence over them. 38 But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they thought, ‘Hey, this is the heir of the estate. If we kill him, then the inheritance will be ours.’ 39 So they grabbed the son, dragged him out of the vineyard, and killed him there outside.

40 “Now, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what do you think he’ll do to those tenant farmers?”

41 “He’ll brutally destroy those wicked tenants,” they answered, “then he’ll rent the vineyard out to other tenant farmers, who’ll give him his share of the harvest.”

42 Then Yeshua said to them, “Haven’t you ever read this in the scriptures? It says:[ref]

‘The stone which the builders rejected,

this would become the cornerstone.

This one came from Yahweh,

and it was amazing to see.’

43 “Because of that, I’m telling you that God’s kingdom will be taken away from you people, and be given to a people group who’ll produce a harvest. 44 Anyone who falls down onto this stone will be shattered, and anyone this stone falls on will be totally pulverised.”

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard those parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They attempted to arrest him, but couldn’t, because they knew the crowds believed him to be a prophet from God.