Mark 12:1-9 Then He began to speak to them in stories. "A man once planted a vineyard and fenced it in and hewed out a wine-vat and built a watchtower; then he rented it to tenant farmers, and went abroad.

Williams⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Then He began to speak to them in stories. "A man once planted a vineyard and fenced it in and hewed out a wine-vat and built a watchtower; then he rented it to tenant farmers, and went abroad. ² At the proper time he sent a slave to the tenants to collect his part of the grape crop. ³ But they took him and beat him and sent him back empty-handed. ⁴ And again he sent another slave to them, and they beat his head and treated him shamefully. ⁵ Then he sent a third one, and they killed him, and many others, some of whom they beat, some they killed. ⁶ He had one more to send, his dearly loved son; at last he sent him to them, for he said to himself, 'They will surely respect my son.' ⁷ But those tenants said among themselves, 'This is his heir; come on, let us kill him, and all that is coming to him will be ours.' ⁸ So they took him and killed him, and threw his body outside the vineyard. ⁹ Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come back and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.