¹⁷ But he looked them straight in the eyes and said, “Then what is the meaning of this scripture—‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone?’

¹⁸ The man who falls on that stone will be broken, and the man on whom it falls will be crushed to powder.”

The authorities resort to trickery

¹⁹ The scribes and chief priests longed to get their hands on him at that moment, but they were afraid of the people. They knew well enough that his parable referred to them.