The Gospel According to Matthew, Chapter 21
{21:1} When they drew near to Jerusalem, and came to
[1>]Bethsphage,[<1] to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two
disciples, {21:2} saying 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. {21:3} If anyone says
anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' and immediately
he will send them."
{21:4} All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken through the prophet, saying,
{21:5} "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."
{21:6} The disciples went, and did just as Jesus commanded them,
{21:7} and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their clothes on
them; and he sat on them. {21:8} A very great multitude spread their
clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees, and spread
them on the road. {21:9} The multitudes who went before him, and who
followed kept shouting, "Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"
{21:10} When he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred
up, saying, "Who is this?" {21:11} The multitudes said, "This is the
prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."
{21:12} Jesus 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.
{21:13} He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a
house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers!"
{21:14} The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he
healed them. {21:15} But 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, "Hosanna to the son of David!" they were
indignant, {21:16} and said to him, "Do you hear what these are
saying?"
Jesus said to them, "Yes. Did you never read, 'Out of the mouth of
babes and nursing babies you have perfected praise?'"
{21:17} He left them, and went out of the city to Bethany, and
lodged there. {21:18} Now in the morning, as he returned to the city,
he was hungry. {21:19} Seeing 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. {21:20} When the disciples
saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree immediately
wither away?"
{21:21} Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly I tell you, if you have
faith, and don't doubt, you will not only do what is done to the fig
tree, but even if you told this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into
the sea,' it would be done. {21:22} All things, whatever you ask in
prayer, believing, you will receive."
{21:23} 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?"
{21:24} Jesus 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. {21:25} The baptism of John, 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?' {21:26} But if we
say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a
prophet." {21:27} They answered Jesus, and said, "We don't know."
He also said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I
do these things. {21:28} But what do you think? A man had two sons,
and he came to the first, and said, 'Son, go work today in my
vineyard.' {21:29} He answered, 'I will not,' but afterward he changed
his mind, and went. {21:30} He came to the second, and said the same
thing. He answered, 'I go, sir,' but he didn't go. {21:31} Which of
the two did the will of his father?"
They said to him, "The first."
Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly I tell you that the tax
collectors and the prostitutes are entering into the Kingdom of God
before you. {21:32} For John 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.
{21:33} "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
winepress in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went
into another country. {21:34} When the season for the fruit drew near,
he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruit. {21:35} The
farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned
another. {21:36} Again, he sent other servants more than the first:
and they treated them the same way. {21:37} But afterward he sent to
them his son, saying, 'They will respect my son.' {21:38} But the
farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, 'This is the
heir. Come, let's kill him, and seize his inheritance.' {21:39} So
they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
{21:40} When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do
to those farmers?"
{21:41} 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."
{21:42} Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures,
'The stone which the builders rejected,
The same was made the head of the corner.
This was from the Lord.
It is marvelous in our eyes?'
{21:43} "Therefore I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away
from you, and will be given to a nation bringing forth its fruits.
{21:44} He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on
whoever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust."
{21:45} When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables,
they perceived that he spoke about them. {21:46} When they sought to
seize him, they feared the multitudes, because they considered him to
be a prophet.
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Footnotes:
[1] {21:1} TR reads "Bethphage" instead of "Bethsphage"
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