Matthew 21:1-46
21 And when they drew near to Jerusalem, and came to Bethany on the slope of the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
2 saying to them “Go to the village opposite you, and at once you will find an ass hitched and a colt with it; unhitch them and bring them to me.
3 And if anyone says anything to you, you are to say ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.
4 And this has come to pass in order that what was said through the prophet in the words
5 ‘Say to the daughter of Sion “Here is your king coming to you, meek, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt an ass’s foal”’ should be fulfilled.”
6 And the disciples went and did as Jesus directed them
7 and brought the ass and the colt; and they laid their cloaks on them, and he took his seat upon them;
8 and the great crowd spread their cloaks in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road.
9 And the crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were crying out “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna on high!”
10 And when he came into Jerusalem all the city was shaken, saying “Who is this?”
11 and the crowds said “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
12 And Jesus went into the temple-precinct and turned out all those who were buying and selling in the precinct, and threw down the money-changers’ tables and the pigeon-sellers’ seats,
13 and said to them “It is written ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a robbers’ cave.”
14 And blind and lame men approached him in the precinct, and he cured them.
15 But at seeing the marvels that he did, and the children shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David” in the temple-precinct, the chief priests and the scribes took offense
16 and said to him “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them “Yes; did you never read ‘Out of the mouths of infants, and of babies at the breast, thou hast instituted praise’?”
17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.
18 And in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he grew hungry;
19 and, seeing a single fig-tree by the roadside, he went to it, and found nothing on it but only leaves, and said to it “Never again shall there be any fruit from you”; and the fig-tree withered immediately.
20 And at seeing it the disciples wondered, saying “How was it that immediately the fig-tree withered?”
21 But Jesus answered them “I tell you verily, if you have faith and do not doubt you will not only do this of the fig-tree, but even if you say to this mountain ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’ it will be done;
22 and everything that you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
23 And after he had come into the temple-precinct the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said “By what authority are you doing these things? and who gave you this authority?”
24 But Jesus answered them “I will ask you one thing myself, and if you tell me that, so will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
25 * Where was John’s baptizing from? from heaven or from men?” And they went over the question to themselves, thinking “If we say ‘From heaven’ he will say to us ‘Then why did you not believe him?’
26 but if we say ‘From men’ we are afraid of the populace, for they all look on John as a prophet.”
27 And they answered Jesus “We do not know.” Said he in turn to them, “And neither do I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
28 But what do you think? A man had two children. He went to the first and said ‘My child, go today and work in the vineyard’;
29 ** but he answered ‘I’ll be there, sir’ and did not go.
30 And he went to the second and said the same; but he answered ‘I don’t want to.’ Afterward he changed his mind and went.
31 Which of the two did what his father would have him?” They said “The last.” Said Jesus to them, “I tell you verily that the customhouse officers and the prostitutes are passing into the Reign of God ahead of you.
32 For John came to you along the road to right living and you did not believe him, but the customhouse officers and prostitutes did; and you, when you saw it, did not even afterward change your mind and believe him.
33 “Listen to another parable. There was a proprietor who set out a vineyard, and put a fence round it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower, and rented it to farmers and went abroad.
34 And when the season for the crop drew near he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his crop;
35 and the farmers took his servants and beat this one and killed that and stoned that.
36 Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first; and they did the same way with them.
37 But afterward he sent his son to them, thinking ‘They will have some respect for my son.’
38 But the farmers, when they saw the son, said to themselves ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance’;
39 and they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 Then when the owner of the vineyard comes what will he do with those farmers?”
41 They said to him “He will kill them off like the rascals they are, and rent the vineyard to other farmers who will deliver him the crops in their seasons.”
42 Said Jesus to them “Did you never read in the Scriptures ‘The stone that the builders condemned, that stone has come to be the top of the corner: this was from the Lord, and is wonderful in our eyes’?
43 I tell you accordingly, the Reign of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that produces its fruits.”
44 * ——
45 And the chief priests and the Pharisees, hearing his parables, knew that he was speaking about them;
46 and they tried to seize him but were afraid of the crowds, since they looked upon him as a prophet.
Footnotes
^ 21:25 Or to each other, saying
^ 21:29 Lit. ‘I, sir’
^ 21:29-31 Var. makes the two sons’ answers change places, with or without changing the priests’ answer to The first
^ 21:44 Var. adds verse 44, which is And he who falls on this stone will be mangled; but him on whom it falls it will scatter to the winds.
