13. So the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’
14. But when the tenant farmers saw him, they began to reason with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance will become ours!’
15. And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
16. He will come and destroy those tenant farmers and give the vineyard to others.” And when they heard this, they said, “May this never happen!”
17. But he looked intently at them and said, “What then is this that is written: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the cornerstone.’
18. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls—it will crush him!”
19. And the scribes and the chief priests sought to lay their hands on him at that same hour, and they were afraid of the people, for they knew that he had told this parable with reference to them.
20. And they watched him closely and sent spies who pretended they were upright, in order that they could catch him in a statement, so that they could hand him over to the authority and the jurisdiction of the governor.