Matthew 21
21
Entry into Jerusalem
1When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus gave two disciples a task. 2He said to them, “Go into the village over there. As soon as you enter, you will find a donkey tied up and a colt with it. Untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, say that their master needs them.” He sent them off right away. 4Now this happened to fulfill what the prophet said, 5Say to Daughter Zion, “Look, your king is coming to you, humble and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the donkey’s offspring.”#21.5 Isa 62:11; Zech 9:9 6The disciples went and did just as Jesus had ordered them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them. Then he sat on them.
8Now a large crowd spread their clothes on the road. Others cut palm branches off the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds in front of him and behind him shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!#21.9 Ps. 118:26Hosanna in the highest!” 10And when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up. “Who is this?” they asked. 11The crowds answered, “It’s the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Cleansing the temple
12Then Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those who were selling and buying there. He pushed over the tables used for currency exchange and the chairs of those who sold doves. 13He said to them, “It’s written, My house will be called a house of prayer.#21.13 Isa 56:7; Jer 7:11 But you’ve made it a hideout for crooks.”
14People who were blind and lame came to Jesus in the temple, and he healed them. 15But when the chief priests and legal experts saw the amazing things he was doing and the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were angry. 16They said to Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
“Yes,” he answered. “Haven’t you ever read, From the mouths of babies and infants you’ve arranged praise for yourself?#21.16 Ps 8:3 LXX” 17Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.
Cursing the fig tree
18Early in the morning as Jesus was returning to the city, he was hungry. 19He saw a fig tree along the road, but when he came to it, he found nothing except leaves. Then he said to it, “You’ll never again bear fruit!” The fig tree dried up at once.
20When the disciples saw it, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree dry up so fast?” they asked.
21Jesus responded, “I assure you that if you have faith and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree. You will even say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the lake.’ And it will happen. 22If you have faith, you will receive whatever you pray for.”
Jesus’ authority questioned
23When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and elders of the people came to him as he was teaching. They asked, “What kind of authority do you have for doing these things? Who gave you this authority?”
24Jesus replied, “I have a question for you. If you tell me the answer, I’ll tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things. 25Where did John get his authority to baptize? Did he get it from heaven or from humans?”
They argued among themselves, “If we say ‘from heaven,’ he’ll say to us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 26But we can’t say ‘from humans’ because we’re afraid of the crowd, since everyone thinks John was a prophet.” 27Then they replied, “We don’t know.”
Jesus also said to them, “Neither will I tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things.
Parable of two sons
28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. Now he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’
29 “‘No, I don’t want to,’ he replied. But later he changed his mind and went.
30 “The father said the same thing to the other son, who replied, ‘Yes, sir.’ But he didn’t go.
31“Which one of these two did his father’s will?”
They said, “The first one.”
Jesus said to them, “I assure you that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering God’s kingdom ahead of you. 32For John came to you on the righteous road, and you didn’t believe him. But tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. Yet even after you saw this, you didn’t change your hearts and lives and you didn’t believe him.
Parable of the tenant farmers
33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it to tenant farmers and took a trip. 34When it was time for harvest, he sent his servants to the tenant farmers to collect his fruit. 35But the tenant farmers grabbed his servants. They beat some of them, and some of them they killed. Some of them they stoned to death.
36 “Again he sent other servants, more than the first group. They treated them in the same way. 37Finally he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come on, let’s kill him and we’ll have his inheritance.’ 39They grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
40“When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?”
41They said, “He will totally destroy those wicked farmers and rent the vineyard to other tenant farmers who will give him the fruit when it’s ready.”
42Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the scriptures, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this, and it’s amazing in our eyes?#21.42 Ps 118:22-23 43Therefore, I tell you that God’s kingdom will be taken away from you and will be given to a people who produce its fruit. 44Whoever falls on this stone will be crushed. And the stone will crush the person it falls on.”
45Now when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard the parable, they knew Jesus was talking about them. 46They were trying to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, who thought he was a prophet.
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Matthew 21: CEB
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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Matthew 21
21
1 When they came near to Jerusalem and came to Bethsphage,#21:1 TR & NU read “Bethphage” instead of “Bethsphage” to the Mount of Olives, then Yeshua sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go into the village that is opposite 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 immediately he will send them.”
4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying,
5“Tell the daughter of Zion,
behold, your King comes to you,
humble, and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”#Zechariah 9:9
6 The disciples went and did just as Yeshua commanded them, 7and brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them; and he sat on them. 8A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The multitudes who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept shouting, “Hoshia'na#21:9 “Hoshia'na” means “save us” or “help us, we pray”. to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hoshia'na in the highest!” #Psalms 118:26
10 When he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”
11 The multitudes said, “This is the prophet, Yeshua, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
12Yeshua entered into the temple of God and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves. 13He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’#Isaiah 56:7 but you have made it a den of robbers!”#Jeremiah 7:11
14 The lame and the blind 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 who were crying in the temple and saying, “Hoshia'na to the son of David!” they were indignant, 16and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?”
Yeshua said to them, “Yes. Did you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of children and nursing babies, you have perfected praise’?”#Psalms 8:2
17 He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and camped there.
18 Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry. 19Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, “Let there be no fruit from you forever!”
Immediately the fig tree withered away.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree immediately wither away?”
21Yeshua answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it would be done. 22All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
23 When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?”
24Yeshua answered them, “I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25The immersion of Yochanan, where was it from? From heaven or from men?”
They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all hold Yochanan as a prophet.” 27They answered Yeshua, and said, “We don’t know.”
He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. 28But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’ 29He answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind, and went. 30He came to the second, and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I’m going, sir,’ but he didn’t go. 31Which of the two did the will of his father?”
They said to him, “The first.”
Yeshua said to them, “Most certainly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into God’s Kingdom before you. 32For Yochanan came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn’t even repent afterward, that you might believe him.
33 “Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. 34When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his fruit. 35The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36Again, he sent other servants more than the first; and they treated them the same way. 37But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard, then killed him. 40When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”
41 They told him, “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers who will give him the fruit in its season.”
42Yeshua said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,
‘The stone which the builders rejected
was made the head of the corner.
This was from the Lord.
It is marvelous in our eyes’? #
Psalms 118:22-23
43 “Therefore I tell you, God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you and will be given to a nation producing its fruit. 44He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke about them. 46When they sought to seize him, they feared the multitudes, because they considered him to be a prophet.
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