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New Defender's Study Bible Notes
21:33 vineyard. In this parable and others, the vineyard, like the fig tree, often symbolizes Israel (Isaiah 5:7). The servants sent to collect the fruit represent the prophets, and finally the son of the householder represents Christ—all of them rejected and slain by the keepers of the vineyard.
21:42 the builders rejected. The Scripture cited here is Psalm 118:22-23—the same psalm sung by the multitude as He was riding into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:9). In their very rejection of Christ, these builders were fulfilling His Word!
21:44 fall on this stone. It had been predicted that the Messiah would be “a stone of stumbling” to Israel (Isaiah 8:14), and that those who fall over it would “be broken” (Isaiah 8:15), for that same stone would become eventually “the head of the corner” (Matthew 21:42). Finally, the stone would be used to crush and grind to powder the Gentile nations that God would use as a rod to chastise Israel (Daniel 2:34-35,45).