And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled.

And again he sent unto them another servant; and him they wounded in the head, and handled shamefully.

And again he sent to them another servant; and him they wounded in the head, and used him reproachfully.

And again he sent to them another bondman; and at him they threw stones, and struck him on the head, and sent him away with insult.

And again he sent unto them another servant, and at that one having cast stones, they wounded him in the head, and sent away, dishonoured.

Again he sent to them another servant: and as for him, they wounded him in the head and treated him shamefully.

And again he sent to them another servant; and they gave him wounds on the head, and were very cruel to him.

Again, he sent another servant to them; and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully.

And again, he sent another servant to them. And they wounded him on the head, and they treated him with contempt.

A second time the owner sent a servant to them; this man, too, the tenants struck on the head, and insulted.

At him they cast stones and wounded him in the head - Or rather, as most learned men agree, they made short work of it, εκεφαλαιωσαν. We have followed the Vulgate, illum in capite vulneraverunt, in translating the original, wounded him in the head, in which signification, I believe, the word is found in no Greek writer. Ανακεφαλαιοομαι signifies to sum up, to comprise, and is used in this sense by St. Paul, Romans 13:9. From the parable we learn that these people were determined to hear no reason, to do no justice, and to keep the possession and the produce by violence; therefore they fulfilled their purpose in the fullest and speediest manner, which seems to be what the evangelist intended to express by the word in question. Mr. Wakefield translates, They speedily sent him away; others think the meaning is, They shaved their heads and made them look ridiculously; this is much to the same purpose, but I prefer, They made short work of it. Dr. Lightfoot, De Dieu, and others, agree in the sense given above; and this will appear the more probable, if the word λιθοβολησαντες, they cast stones, be omitted, as it is by BDL, the Coptic, Vulgate, and all the Itala.

And again he sent unto them another servant,.... Another set of good men, to instruct, advise, and counsel them, and exhort them to their duty; such as were Isaiah, Zechariah, and others:
and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head; for of these were stoned, as well as sawn asunder, and slain with the sword; though it seems, that this servant, or this set of men, were not stoned to death, because he was afterwards said to be sent away: nor could the stoning be what was done by the order of the sanhedrim, which was done by letting an heavy stone fail upon the heart (k); but this was done by all the people, by the outrageous zealots, in the manner Stephen was stoned. Dr. Lightfoot thinks, the usual sense of the Greek word may be retained; which signifies "to reduce", or "gather into a certain sum": and so as this servant was sent to reckon with these husbandmen, and take an account from them of the fruit of the vineyard, one cast a stone at him, saying, there is fruit for you; and a second cast another stone, saying the same thing; and so they went on one after another, till at last they said, in a deriding way, now the sum is made up with you:
and sent him away shamefully handled; with great ignominy and reproach.
(k) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 6. sect. 4.