He ¹  said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest ²  to send out ³  workers into his harvest.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me ¹  like one of your hired workers.”’

Stay ¹  in that same house, eating and drinking what they give you, ²  for the worker deserves his pay. ³  Do not move around from house to house.

But the worker ¹  answered him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year too, until I dig around it and put fertilizer ²  on it.

But when he came to his senses ¹  he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food ²  enough to spare, but here I am dying from hunger!

So ¹  he said to the worker who tended the vineyard, ‘For ²  three years ³  now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it ⁴  I find none. Cut ⁵  it down! Why ⁶  should it continue to deplete ⁷  the soil?’

But ¹  he will reply, ²  ‘I don’t know where you come from! ³  Go away from me, all you evildoers!’ ⁴ 

Then ¹  he began to tell the people this parable: “A man ²  planted a vineyard, ³  leased it to tenant farmers, ⁴  and went on a journey for a long time.

When harvest time came, he sent a slave ¹  to the tenants so that they would give ²  him his portion of the crop. ³  However, the tenants beat his slave ⁴  and sent him away empty-handed.