21:1 Now 1 when they approached Jerusalem 2 and came to Bethphage, 3 at the Mount of Olives, 4 Jesus sent two disciples, 21:2 telling them, “Go to the village ahead of you. 5 Right away you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 21:3 If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ 6 and he will send them at once.” 21:4 This 7 took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: 8
21:5 “Tell the people of Zion, 9
‘Look, your king is coming to you,
unassuming and seated on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” 10
21:6 So 11 the disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 21:7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks 12 on them, and he sat on them. 21:8 A 13 very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 21:9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those following kept shouting, 14 “Hosanna 15 to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 16 Hosanna in the highest!” 21:10 As he entered Jerusalem the whole city was thrown into an uproar, 17 saying, “Who is this?” 21:11 And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth 18 in Galilee.”
21:12 Then 19 Jesus entered the temple area 20 and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple courts, 21 and turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. 21:13 And he said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ 22 but you are turning it into a den 23 of robbers!” 24
21:14 The blind and lame came to him in the temple courts, and he healed them. 21:15 But when the chief priests and the experts in the law 25 saw the wonderful things he did and heard the children crying out in the temple courts, 26 “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant 21:16 and said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of children and nursing infants you have prepared praise for yourself’?” 27 21:17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.
21:18 Now early in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry. 21:19 After noticing a fig tree 28 by the road he went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, “Never again will there be fruit from you!” And the fig tree withered at once. 21:20 When the disciples saw it they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” 21:21 Jesus 29 answered them, “I tell you the truth, 30 if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 21:22 And whatever you ask in prayer, if you believe, 31 you will receive.”
21:23 Now after Jesus 32 entered the temple courts, 33 the chief priests and elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority 34 are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 21:24 Jesus 35 answered them, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 21:25 Where did John’s baptism come from? From heaven or from people?” 36 They discussed this among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 21:26 But if we say, ‘From people,’ we fear the crowd, for they all consider John to be a prophet.”