Matthew 21:33

¹Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. ²He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. ³“Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. ⁴What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?

¹He began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a pit for the wine press, built a tower, rented it out to a farmer, and went into another country. ²When it was time, he sent a servant to the farmer to get from the farmer his share of the fruit of the vineyard. ³They took him, beat him, and sent him away empty. ⁴Again, he sent another servant to them; and they threw stones at him, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. ⁵Again he sent another, and they killed him, and many others, beating some, and killing some. ⁶Therefore still having one, his beloved son, he sent him last to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷But those farmers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸They took him, killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. ⁹What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the farmers, and will give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Haven’t you even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner. ¹¹This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes’?”

¹²They tried to seize him, but they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spoke the parable against them. They left him and went away.

⁹He began to tell the people this parable: “A ^[+] man planted a vineyard and rented it out to some farmers, and went into another country for a long time. ¹⁰At the proper season, he sent a servant to the farmers to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him and sent him away empty. ¹¹He sent yet another servant, and they also beat him and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. ¹²He sent yet a third, and they also wounded him and threw him out. ¹³The lord of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be that seeing him, they will respect him.’

¹⁴“But when the farmers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ ¹⁵Then they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard that, they said, “May that never be!”

¹⁷But he looked at them and said, “Then what is this that is written, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the chief cornerstone’?¹⁸Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but it will crush whomever it falls on to dust.”

¹⁹The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him that very hour, but they feared the people—for they knew he had spoken this parable against them.

²¹Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

¹“I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon. He leased out the vineyard to keepers. Each was to bring a thousand shekels^[+] of silver for its fruit. ¹²My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon, two hundred for those who tend its fruit.

⁴You will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi,” says the LORD of Armies. ⁵“My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name. ⁶The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity. ⁷For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of Armies. ⁸But you have turned away from the path. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Armies. ⁹“Therefore I have also made you contemptible and wicked before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law.

¹Hear the LORD’s word, you children of Israel, for the LORD has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.

⁸You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it. ⁹You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root, and filled the land. ¹⁰The mountains were covered with its shadow. Its boughs were like God’s cedars. ¹¹It sent out its branches to the sea, its shoots to the River. ¹²Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it? ¹³The boar out of the wood ravages it. The wild animals of the field feed on it. ¹⁴Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine, ¹⁵the stock which your right hand planted, the branch that you made strong for yourself. ¹⁶It’s burned with fire. It’s cut down. They perish at your rebuke.

¹²He said therefore, “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.