The religious leaders replied,“ He will put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest.”

他们说：“要下毒手除灭那些恶人，将葡萄园另租给那按着时候交果子的园户。”

他们说：“要狠狠地除灭那些恶人，将葡萄园转租给那些按时候交果子的园户。”

他们说：“要狠狠地除灭那些恶人，将葡萄园转租给那些按时候交果子的园户。”

他们说：“他会毫不留情地除掉那些恶人，然后把葡萄园租给其他按时交果子的佃户。”

他们回答：“他会毫不留情地除掉那些恶人，把葡萄园租给按时缴纳果子的佃户。”

他们回答说：“他会狠狠地除灭那些恶人，把葡萄园另租给按时交果子的农夫们。”

他們說：「要下毒手除滅那些惡人，將葡萄園另租給那按着時候交果子的園戶。」

他們說：「要狠狠地除滅那些惡人，將葡萄園轉租給那些按時候交果子的園戶。」

他們說：「要狠狠地除滅那些惡人，將葡萄園轉租給那些按時候交果子的園戶。」

他們說：「他會毫不留情地除掉那些惡人，然後把葡萄園租給其他按時交果子的佃戶。」

他們回答：“他會毫不留情地除掉那些惡人，把葡萄園租給按時繳納果子的佃戶。”

他們對他說：『惡人、他必用惡報殺滅他們，把葡萄園租給別的園工，就是能在果子的節候把果子納給他的。」』

他們回答說：「他會狠狠地除滅那些惡人，把葡萄園另租給按時交果子的農夫們。」

僉曰、必殲滅此惡人、園租於他農、可依期納果也、

曰、其必翦滅此惡人、租園與他農、可按時納果也、

眾曰、必翦滅此惡人、以園轉租與他園夫、可按時納果也、

曰：『必殲此惡類、而以葡萄園另租良農、俾得按時收菓。』

“ He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied,“ and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

“ He will destroy those evil people,” they replied.“ Then he will rent the vineyard out to other renters. They will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

They said to him,“ He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

“ He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told him,“ and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.”

They* said to Him,“ He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other vine growers, who will pay him the fruit in the proper seasons.”

They said to Him,“ He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.”

They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will let out the vineyard unto other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

“ He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told Him,“ and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his produce at the harvest.”

They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out[ his] vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

They said to him,“ He will utterly destroy those evil men! Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his portion at the harvest.”

They told him,“ He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruit in its season.”

But when they opposed and insulted him, Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said,“ Your blood is upon your own heads— I am innocent. From now on I will go preach to the Gentiles.”

I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit.

So I want you to know that this salvation from God has also been offered to the Gentiles, and they will accept it.”

But the one who rules in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them.Then in anger he rebukes them, terrifying them with his fierce fury.

He also came so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for his mercies to them. That is what the psalmist meant when he wrote:“ For this, I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing praises to your name.”And in another place it is written,“ Rejoice with his people, you Gentiles.”And yet again,“ Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Praise him, all you people of the earth.”And in another place Isaiah said,“ The heir to David’s throne will come, and he will rule over the Gentiles. They will place their hope on him.”I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them.Even so, I have been bold enough to write about some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder. For by God’s grace,I am a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit.So I have reason to be enthusiastic about all Christ Jesus has done through me in my service to God.Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them.

As it happened, Publius’s father was ill with fever and dysentery. Paul went in and prayed for him, and laying his hands on him, he healed him.

The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says,“ The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. On that day the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be consumed— roots, branches, and all.“ But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.On the day when I act, you will tread upon the wicked as if they were dust under your feet,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.“ Remember to obey the Law of Moses, my servant— all the decrees and regulations that I gave him on Mount Sinai for all Israel.“ Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives.His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

as they try to keep us from preaching the Good News of salvation to the Gentiles. By doing this, they continue to pile up their sins. But the anger of God has caught up with them at last.

Your name will be a curse word among my people, for the Sovereign Lord will destroy you and will call his true servants by another name.

You will break them with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots.’”

And now the Lord speaks— the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him. The Lord has honored me, and my God has given me strength.He says,“ You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”The Lord, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, says to the one who is despised and rejected by the nations, to the one who is the servant of rulers:“ Kings will stand at attention when you pass by. Princes will also bow low because of the Lord, the faithful one, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

I got rid of their three evil shepherds in a single month. But I became impatient with these sheep, and they hated me, too.So I told them,“ I won’t be your shepherd any longer. If you die, you die. If you are killed, you are killed. And let those who remain devour each other!”Then I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, showing that I had revoked the covenant I had made with all the nations.

Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.“ The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town.

For those will be days of God’s vengeance, and the prophetic words of the Scriptures will be fulfilled.How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. For there will be disaster in the land and great anger against this people.They will be killed by the sword or sent away as captives to all the nations of the world. And Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the period of the Gentiles comes to an end.

For there will be greater anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again.In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God’s chosen ones.

“ After this period of sixty two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end.

And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world— from east and west— and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven.But many Israelites— those for whom the Kingdom was prepared— will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

I will perform a sign among them. And I will send those who survive to be messengers to the nations— to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians( who are famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to all the lands beyond the sea that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. There they will declare my glory to the nations.They will bring the remnant of your people back from every nation. They will bring them to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord. They will ride on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the Lord.“ And I will appoint some of them to be my priests and Levites. I, the Lord, have spoken!

So his master said,‘ Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full.For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’”

Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared,“ It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles.For the Lord gave us this command when he said,‘ I have made you a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.’”When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers.

“ All Israel will mourn, each clan by itself, and with the husbands separate from their wives. The clan of David will mourn alone, as will the clan of Nathan,

At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows:“ Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe.

Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!

Two thirds of the people in the land will be cut off and die,” says the Lord.“ But one third will be left in the land.

“ However, if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands,and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands,I will punish you. I will bring sudden terrors upon you— wasting diseases and burning fevers that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them.I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you!“ And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins.I will break your proud spirit by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze.All your work will be for nothing, for your land will yield no crops, and your trees will bear no fruit.“ If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey me, I will inflict disaster on you seven times over for your sins.I will send wild animals that will rob you of your children and destroy your livestock. Your numbers will dwindle, and your roads will be deserted.“ And if you fail to learn the lesson and continue your hostility toward me,then I myself will be hostile toward you. I will personally strike you with calamity seven times over for your sins.I will send armies against you to carry out the curse of the covenant you have broken. When you run to your towns for safety, I will send a plague to destroy you there, and you will be handed over to your enemies.I will destroy your food supply, so that ten women will need only one oven to bake bread for their families. They will ration your food by weight, and though you have food to eat, you will not be satisfied.“ If in spite of all this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile toward me,then I will give full vent to my hostility. I myself will punish you seven times over for your sins.Then you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.I will destroy your pagan shrines and knock down your places of worship. I will leave your lifeless corpses piled on top of your lifeless idols, and I will despise you.I will make your cities desolate and destroy your places of pagan worship. I will take no pleasure in your offerings that should be a pleasing aroma to me.Yes, I myself will devastate your land, and your enemies who come to occupy it will be appalled at what they see.I will scatter you among the nations and bring out my sword against you. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins.Then at last the land will enjoy its neglected Sabbath years as it lies desolate while you are in exile in the land of your enemies. Then the land will finally rest and enjoy the Sabbaths it missed.As long as the land lies in ruins, it will enjoy the rest you never allowed it to take every seventh year while you lived in it.“ And for those of you who survive, I will demoralize you in the land of your enemies. You will live in such fear that the sound of a leaf driven by the wind will send you fleeing. You will run as though fleeing from a sword, and you will fall even when no one pursues you.Though no one is chasing you, you will stumble over each other as though fleeing from a sword. You will have no power to stand up against your enemies.You will die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of your enemies.Those of you who survive will waste away in your enemies’ lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors.“ But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me.When I have turned their hostility back on them and brought them to the land of their enemies, then at last their stubborn hearts will be humbled, and they will pay for their sins.Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.For the land must be abandoned to enjoy its years of Sabbath rest as it lies deserted. At last the people will pay for their sins, for they have continually rejected my regulations and despised my decrees.“ But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out, for I am the Lord their God.For their sakes I will remember my ancient covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of all the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.”These are the decrees, regulations, and instructions that the Lord gave through Moses on Mount Sinai as evidence of the relationship between himself and the Israelites.

He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never ending fire.”

then the Lord will overwhelm you and your children with indescribable plagues. These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you miserable and unbearably sick.He will afflict you with all the diseases of Egypt that you feared so much, and you will have no relief.The Lord will afflict you with every sickness and plague there is, even those not mentioned in this Book of Instruction, until you are destroyed.Though you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, few of you will be left because you would not listen to the Lord your God.“ Just as the Lord has found great pleasure in causing you to prosper and multiply, the Lord will find pleasure in destroying you. You will be torn from the land you are about to enter and occupy.For the Lord will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship foreign gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods made of wood and stone!There among those nations you will find no peace or place to rest. And the Lord will cause your heart to tremble, your eyesight to fail, and your soul to despair.Your life will constantly hang in the balance. You will live night and day in fear, unsure if you will survive.In the morning you will say,‘ If only it were night!’ And in the evening you will say,‘ If only it were morning!’ For you will be terrified by the awful horrors you see around you.Then the Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, to a destination I promised you would never see again. There you will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will buy you.”

As a result, you will be held responsible for the murder of all godly people of all time— from the murder of righteous Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you killed in the Temple between the sanctuary and the altar.I tell you the truth, this judgment will fall on this very generation.“ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.And now, look, your house is abandoned and desolate.

With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grieffor my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed— cut off from Christ!— if that would save them.They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises.Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say,“ Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too.This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.For God had promised,“ I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God.( This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes;

Now let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will tear down its hedges and let it be destroyed. I will break down its walls and let the animals trample it.I will make it a wild place where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed, a place overgrown with briers and thorns. I will command the clouds to drop no rain on it.The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. The people of Judah are his pleasant garden. He expected a crop of justice, but instead he found oppression. He expected to find righteousness, but instead he heard cries of violence.

I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city.Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past.

“ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for you will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but you will be thrown out.And people will come from all over the world— from east and west, north and south— to take their places in the Kingdom of God.

Remember what happened to Lot’s wife!If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.That night two people will be asleep in one bed; one will be taken, the other left.Two women will be grinding flour together at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.”

But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep.“ How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes.Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side.They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”

So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak?