1. Then he began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went on a journey.
2. At harvest time he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his portion of the crop.
3. But those tenants seized his slave, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.
4. So he sent another slave to them again. This one they struck on the head and treated outrageously.