¹Then when they approached Jerusalem and had gone to Bethsphagé, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ²and he said to them, “Go to the village opposite you, and straightaway you will find a female donkey bound and a foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me, ³and if anyone says anything to you, say, ‘The Lord needs them’, and straightaway he will despatch them.” ⁴Now all of this took place in order that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, where he says, ⁵“Say to the daughter of Zion, ⁶Then the disciples went off and did what Jesus had commanded them, ⁷and they brought the donkey and the foal, and they put their coats on them, and he sat on them. ⁸And a very large crowd strewed their own clothes in the way, whereas others would cut branches from the trees and strew them in the way. ⁹And the crowds which went in front and those following kept shouting and saying,

“Hosanna to the son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest realms!”

¹⁰Then when he had entered Jerusalem, the whole city became agitated, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹And the crowds would say, “This is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” ¹²Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers, and the chairs of those selling doves, ¹³and he said to them, “It stands written: ¹⁴Then the lame and blind came to him in the temple, and he healed them, ¹⁵but when the senior priests and the scribes saw the wonders which he performed, and the children in the temple shouting and saying, “Hosanna to the son of David!”, they were indignant, ¹⁶and they said to him, “Do you hear what these people are saying?” Then Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read that

You have furnished praise’?”

¹⁷Then when he had left them, he went out of the city to Bethany and passed the night there, ¹⁸and early in the morning as he returned to the city, he was hungry, ¹⁹and when he saw a certain fig tree on the way, he went to it, but he did not find anything on it except just leaves. And he said to it, “Let no fruit ever be produced from you any more.” And immediately the fig tree dried up. ²⁰Then when the disciples saw it, they were amazed, and they said, “How quickly the fig tree dried up!” ²¹But Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will be able to perform not only the feat of the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and deposited into the sea’, it will take place, ²²and everything you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive.” ²³Then when he had come to the temple, as he was teaching, the senior priests and elders of the people came to him, and they said, “By what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority?” ²⁴But Jesus replied and said to them, “I for my part will ask you one thing, and if you tell me, I in turn will tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵From where was the baptism of John? From heaven, or from men?” Then they debated among themselves, and they said, “If we say, ‘From heaven’, he will say to us, ‘Why, then, did you not believe him?’ ²⁶But if we say, ‘From men’, we fear the crowd, for all hold John to be a prophet.” ²⁷So they replied and said to Jesus, “We do not know.” He in turn said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁸But what do you think of this? A man had two children, and he went to the first and said, ‘My child, go and work in my vineyard today.’ ²⁹But he replied and said, ‘I refuse.’ But later, he had a change of heart and went. ³⁰Then he went to the second and spoke similarly. Now he replied and said, ‘I will go, sir’, but he did not go there. ³¹Which of the two did the will of the father?” They said to him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes go before you into the kingdom of God. ³²For John came to you in the way of righteousness, but you did not believe him. However, the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. But when you had seen him, you did not repent later so as to believe him. ³³Listen to another parable. A certain man was a landlord who planted a vineyard and erected a fence round it, and he dug a wine vat in it and built a tower, and he put it under hired labour with farmers and went abroad. ³⁴But when the time of the fruit-harvest approached, he sent his servants to the farmers to receive its fruit. ³⁵But the farmers took his servants, and they flogged one, and they killed another, and they stoned another. ³⁶Next he sent more servants, more numerous than the first, and they did likewise to them. ³⁷And lastly he sent his son to them, and he said, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸But when the farmers saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ ³⁹And they took him, and they threw him out of the vineyard, and they killed him. ⁴⁰Now when the landlord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?” ⁴¹They said to him, “He will put such bad men to a bad kind of death, and he will put the vineyard out under hired labour with other farmers, who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” ⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

And it is wondrous in our eyes’?

⁴³Therefore I say to you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruits. ⁴⁴And whoever falls on this stone will be shattered. But on whomever it falls, it will crush to powder.” ⁴⁵And when the senior priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them, ⁴⁶and although they looked for a way to lay hold of him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

Reference(s) in Chapter 21: v.5 ↔ Zechariah 9:9 ● v.9 ↔ Psalm 118:25, Psalm 118:26 ● v.13 ↔ Isaiah 56:7, Jeremiah 7:11 ● v.15 ↔ Psalm 118:25 ● v.16 ↔ Psalm 8:3^MT (Psalm 8:2^AV) ● v.42 ↔ Psalm 118:22, Psalm 118:23.