12 The Jewish leaders heard that story, and they knew that it was a picture of themselves, that they were the bad workers in the story. They got angry, and they wanted to grab Jesus and take him to jail. But they were frightened of the big mob of people there, so they just walked away and left him alone.
12 And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.
12 And they were trying to get hold of Him, but they were afraid of the people, for they knew that He spoke this parable with reference to and against them. So they left Him and departed. [Isa. 5:1-7.]
12 And they sought to lay hold on him; and they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spake the parable against them: and they left him, and went away.
12 They wanted to arrest Jesus because they knew that he had told the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.
12 And they sought to take hold of him, but they feared the crowd. For they knew that he had spoken this parable about them. And leaving him behind, they went away.
The Jewish law teachers and the bosses of the Jewish ceremonies heard about what Jesus did at God’s house, and they were angry. But all the other people were really happy with Jesus. Whenever he taught them, they listened to him, and they were really surprised by the things he said. So the Jewish leaders were frightened of him. They thought that maybe everyone was going to listen to Jesus and stop listening to them. So those leaders started to work out a way to kill Jesus.
Some of the people wanted to grab Jesus straight away, and take him to court, so the judge might say he has to die. But it wasn’t the right time yet for Jesus to die, so God stopped them, and they didn’t touch him.
But we can’t say that people told him to do it.” You see, those leaders were frightened of the people there. They knew that the people believed that John was God’s man. So if those leaders said that John wasn’t God’s man, then the people might hit them.