And at the season
Or "when it the time of fruit", as the Ethiopic version renders
it, agreeably to (See Gill on Matthew
21:34):
he sent a servant to the husbandmen;
or servants, as in ( Matthew
21:34 ) ; the prophets of the Lord, his messengers, whom he
sent to them, to exhort them to bring forth the fruits of
righteousness, as follows:
that they should give him of the fruit of the
vineyard;
that is, that they, bringing forth good fruit in their lives and
conversations, whereby it might appear that they were trees of
righteousness, and the planting of the Lord; he, or they
observing them, might give an account of them to the Lord, to the
glory of his name:
but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away
empty;
the Jews not only mocked these messengers of the Lord, and
despised their words, but misused them, ( 2
Chronicles 36:15 2
Chronicles 36:16 ) they beat them with their fists, smote
them on the cheek, and scourged them with scourges; so that they
had no account to give of their fruitfulness in good works, but
the contrary; (See Gill on Matthew
21:35) and (See Gill on Mark
12:3).
