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Parables · 38 of 45

The Wicked Tenants

In Jerusalem, the final week

Mark 12:1–12

3 accounts of this passage

Mark 12:1–12

1He began to speak to them in parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a tower. He rented it to tenant farmers and went to a distant country. 2When harvest season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the vineyard's fruit. 3But they grabbed the servant, beat him, and sent him back with nothing. 4And again he sent another servant to them; they threw stones at him, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. 5He sent yet another servant, and they killed that one. He sent many more after that — some they beat, and some they killed. 6Having one son left, his beloved, he sent him last to them, saying, 'They will reverence my son.' 7But the tenants said to each other, 'This is the heir! Let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10Haven't you read this Scripture: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 11This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? 12They wanted to arrest him, but feared the people, because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. So they left him and went away.

Read Mark 12

About this passage

What the parable says

A man planted a vineyard, rented it to farmers, and went away. When he sent servants to collect his share of the fruit, the tenants beat them or killed them. Last of all he sent his son, and they killed him too. The chief priests and leaders knew Jesus had told this parable against them.

Where this fits

One of 45 passages in Jesus' Parables, in the group “In Jerusalem, the final week.”

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