Matthew 21

¹Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage , to the Mount of Olives , then Jesus sent two disciples ,

²saying to them , Go into the village in front of you , and immediately you will find a donkey tied , and a colt with her . Untie them and bring them to me .

³If anyone says anything to you , you shall say , The Lord needs them , and he will send them at once .

⁴This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet , saying ,

⁵Say to the daughter of Zion , Behold , your king is coming to you , humble , and mounted on a donkey , on a colt , the foal of a beast of burden .

⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them .

⁷They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks , and he sat on them .

⁸Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road , and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road .

⁹And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting , Hosanna to the Son of David ! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord ! Hosanna in the highest !

¹⁰And when he entered Jerusalem , the whole city was stirred up , saying , Who is this ?

¹¹And the crowds said , This is the prophet Jesus , from Nazareth of Galilee .

¹²And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple , and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons .

¹³He said to them , It is written , My house shall be called a house of prayer , but you make it a den of robbers .

¹⁴And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple , and he healed them .

¹⁵But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did , and the children crying out in the temple , Hosanna to the Son of David ! they were indignant ,

¹⁶and they said to him , Do you hear what these are saying ? And Jesus said to them , Yes ; have you never read , Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise ?

¹⁷And leaving them , he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there .

¹⁸In the morning , as he was returning to the city , he became hungry .

¹⁹And seeing a fig tree by the wayside , he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves . And he said to it , May no fruit ever come from you again ! And the fig tree withered at once .

²⁰When the disciples saw it, they marveled , saying , How did the fig tree wither at once ?

²¹And Jesus answered them , Truly , I say to you , if you have faith and do not doubt , you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree , but even if you say to this mountain , Be taken up and thrown into the sea , it will happen .

²²And whatever you ask in prayer , you will receive , if you have faith .

²³And when he entered the temple , the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching , and said , By what authority are you doing these things , and who gave you this authority ?

²⁴Jesus answered them , I also will ask you one question , and if you tell me the answer , then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things .

²⁵The baptism of John , from where did it come ? From heaven or from man ? And they discussed it among themselves , saying , If we say , From heaven , he will say to us , Why then did you not believe him ?

²⁶But if we say , From man , we are afraid of the crowd , for they all hold that John was a prophet .

²⁷So they answered Jesus , We do not know . And he said to them , Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things .

²⁸What do you think ? A man had two sons . And he went to the first and said , Son , go and work in the vineyard today .

²⁹And he answered , I will not , but afterward he changed his mind and went .

³⁰And he went to the other son and said the same . And he answered , I go, sir , but did not go .

³¹Which of the two did the will of his father ? They said , The first . Jesus said to them , Truly , I say to you , the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you .

³²For John came to you in the way of righteousness , and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him . And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him .

³³Hear another parable . There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants , and went into another country .

³⁴When the season for fruit drew near , he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit .

³⁵And the tenants took his servants and beat one , killed another , and stoned another .

³⁶Again he sent other servants , more than the first . And they did the same to them .

³⁷Finally he sent his son to them , saying , They will respect my son .

³⁸But when the tenants saw the son , they said to themselves , This is the heir . Come , let us kill him and have his inheritance .

³⁹And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

⁴⁰When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes , what will he do to those tenants ?

⁴¹They said to him , He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons .

⁴²Jesus said to them , Have you never read in the Scriptures : The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone ; this was the Lord’s doing , and it is marvelous in our eyes ?

⁴³Therefore I tell you , the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits .

⁴⁴And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces ; and when it falls on anyone , it will crush him .

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables , they perceived that he was speaking about them .

⁴⁶And although they were seeking to arrest him , they feared the crowds , because they held him to be a prophet .