1 As they approached Jerusalem, that is, the villages of Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples on ahead. 2 “Go into the village ahead of you,” he told them, “and just as ᵖyou are entering it, you will come upon a tethered donkey colt, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and lead it back here. 3 And if anyone, to ᵖyou, says, ‘Why are ᵖyou doing this?’ tell him, ‘It is the Lord who needs it,’ and he will allow you to bring it back here without delay.”

4 So the two disciples went and came upon a colt tethered near a doorway, standing outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5 some of the bystanders said to them, “What are ᵖyou doing untying that colt?” 6 The disciples answered just as Jesus had told them, and the people allowed them to take it.

7 The two men led the colt back to Jesus and put their cloaks on the animal, and Jesus sat down on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road. Others, meanwhile, spread leafy branches, which they had cut from trees in the fields. 9 As for those who were going before Jesus and those who were coming behind him, they kept shouting, “Save us, Messiah! ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!’+ 10 Blessed is the coming Kingdom of our father David! ‘Praise God in the heights!’+”

11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. After looking around at everything, since it was already getting close to sunset, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

12 The next day, when they had left Bethany, Jesus became hungry. 13 Noticing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, he went over to see whether perhaps he would find on it some fruit. But when he went up to it, he didn’t find any figs on it, only leaves. (It wasn’t the right season, you see, for figs.) 14 Then Jesus said something very significant to the fig tree: “May no one eat fruit from you ever again!” And his disciples were listening to this.

15 They arrived in Jerusalem, and after entering the temple courts, Jesus began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the Court of the Gentiles. He overturned these things—the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who were selling doves— 16 and wouldn’t allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 Then he began to teach them and said, “It is written, is it not, that ‘My house will be called this: A house of prayer for all the Gentiles’+? ᵖYou, however, have turned it into ‘a hideout for thieves’+!” 18 The chief priests and Torah-experts heard this and began looking for a way to have Jesus put to death. (They were afraid of him, you see, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.) 19 And whenever it was evening, Jesus and his disciples would leave the city.

20 As they were walking along early in the morning, they saw the fig tree dried out from the roots up! 21 Remembering what had happened, Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has dried up!”

22 “ᵖYou must have faith in God,” Jesus said to them in reply. 23 “Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: If someone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and doesn’t waver with doubt in his heart, but has faith that what he says will surely happen, it will be done for him. 24 That is the reason why I tell ᵖyou this: Whatever ᵖyou are asking for in prayer, have faith that ᵖyou have as good as received it, and it will be done for ᵖyou. 25 And whenever ᵖyou are standing in prayer, forgive, if ᵖyou have against someone a grievance, so that your Father in the heavens, likewise, will forgive ᵖyou your offenses.”+

27 They came again into Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests and the Torah-experts and the elders came up to him and asked, 28 “By what authority is it that ˢyou are doing these things? Who was it that gave you this authority to do these things?”

29 “I will ask ᵖyou one question,” Jesus said to them. “Answer me and I will tell you by what authority it is that I am doing these things. 30 The baptism performed by John—was it God who authorized it, or mere men? Answer me.”

31 So they began talking the matter over among themselves, saying, “If we answer, ‘God,’ he will say, ‘Why then didn’t ᵖyou believe John?’ 32 But if we answer, ‘mere men’…”—they were afraid of the crowd’s reaction. (All the people, you see, regarded John as a genuine prophet.) 33 So finally they said to Jesus, “We don’t know.”

“Then neither will I myself tell ᵖyou by what authority it is that I am doing these things,” Jesus said to them.