Bible Strands
Mark 12:3
But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus narrates this parable to the chief priests and scribes after describing the vineyard owner sending a servant at harvest time to collect fruit. The account places the speaker in Jerusalem as religious leaders confront his authority.
The words — The Greek verbs λαβόντες (labontes) and ἔδειραν (edeiran) literally mean "having taken" and "they beat," while κενὸν (kenon) translates to "empty-handed." These terms emphasize the violent rejection and total failure of the servant's mission.
The thread — The pattern of rejecting divine messengers recurs in 2 Chronicles 36:16, where leaders mock God's envoys, and in Nehemiah 9:26, where they rebel and kill prophets. Jeremiah 26:20 similarly records the persecution of a prophet who delivered God's message.
Why it lands — The text states that the tenants violently seized, beat, and dismissed the servant with nothing. Readers must confront the reality that rejecting God's appointed messengers guarantees judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 36:16 But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.
- Nehemiah 9:26 But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.
- Jeremiah 26:20 Now there was another man prophesying in the name of the LORD, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land the same things that Jeremiah did.
- Jeremiah 29:26 ‘The LORD has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada, to be the chief officer in the house of the LORD, responsible for any madman who acts like a prophet—you must put him in stocks and neck irons.
- Acts 7:52 Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—
- 1 Thessalonians 2:15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,
- Hebrews 11:36 Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
- 1 Kings 18:4 for when Jezebel had slaughtered the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty men per cave, providing them with food and water.)
- 1 Kings 18:13 Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel slaughtered the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred prophets of the LORD, fifty men per cave, and I provided them with food and water.
- 1 Kings 19:10 “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well.”