[1] And when they were near Jerusalem, and had come to Beth-phage, to the
Mountain of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, [2] Saying to them, Go into
the little town in front of you, and straight away you will see an ass with
a cord round her neck, and a young one with her; let them loose and come
with them to me. [3] And if anyone says anything to you, you will say, The
Lord has need of them; and straight away he will send them. [4] Now this
took place so that these words of the prophet might come true, [5] Say to
the daughter of Zion, See, your King comes to you, gentle and seated on an
ass, and on a young ass. [6] And the disciples went and did as Jesus had
given them orders, [7] And got the ass and the young one, and put their
clothing on them, and he took his seat on it. [8] And all the people put
their clothing down in the way; and others got branches from the trees, and
put them down in the way. [9] And those who went before him, and those who
came after, gave loud cries, saying, Glory to the Son of David: A blessing
on him who comes in the name of the Lord: Glory in the highest. [10] And
when he came into Jerusalem, all the town was moved, saying, Who is this?
[11] And the people said, This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of
Galilee. [12] And Jesus went into the Temple and sent out all who were
trading there, overturning the tables of the money-changers and the seats
of those trading in doves. [13] And he said to them, It is in the Writings,
My house is to be named a house of prayer, but you are making it a hole of
thieves. [14] And the blind and the broken in body came to him in the
Temple, and he made them well. [15] But when the chief priests and the
scribes saw the works of power which he did, and the children crying out in
the Temple, Glory to the son of David, they were angry and said to him,
[16] Have you any idea what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes:
have you not seen in the Writings, From the lips of children and babies at
the breast you have made your praise complete? [17] And he went away from
them, and went out of the town to Bethany, and was there for the night.
[18] Now in the morning when he was coming back to the town, he had a
desire for food. [19] And seeing a fig-tree by the wayside, he came to it,
and saw nothing on it but leaves only; and he said to it, Let there be no
fruit from you from this time forward for ever. And straight away the
fig-tree became dry and dead. [20] And when the disciples saw it they were
surprised, saying, How did the fig-tree become dry in so short a time? [21]
And Jesus in answer said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have faith,
without doubting, not only may you do what has been done to the fig-tree,
but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and put into the sea, it
will be done. [22] And all things, whatever you make request for in prayer,
having faith, you will get. [23] And when he had come into the Temple, the
chief priests and those in authority over the people came to him while he
was teaching, and said, By what authority do you do these things? and who
gave you this authority? [24] And Jesus said to them in answer, I will put
one question to you, and if you give me the answer, I will say by what
authority I do these things. [25] The baptism of John, where did it come
from? from heaven or from men? And they were reasoning among themselves,
saying, If we say, From heaven; he will say to us, Why then did you not
have faith in him? [26] But if we say, From men; we are in fear of the
people, because all take John to be a prophet. [27] And they made answer
and said, We have no idea. Then he said to them, And I will not say to you
by what authority I do these things. [28] But how does it seem to you? A
man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go and do work
today in the vine-garden. [29] And he said in answer, I will not: but
later, changing his decision, he went. [30] And he came to the second and
said the same. And he made answer and said, I go, sir: and went not. [31]
Which of the two did his father's pleasure? They say, The first. Jesus said
to them, Truly I say to you, that tax-farmers and loose women are going
into the kingdom of God before you. [32] For John came to you in the way of
righteousness, and you had no faith in him, but the tax-farmers and the
loose women had faith in him: and you, when you saw it, did not even have
regret for your sins, so as to have faith in him. [33] Give ear to another
story. A master of a house made a vine garden, and put a wall round it, and
made a place for crushing out the wine, and made a tower, and let it out to
field-workers, and went into another country. [34] And when the time for
the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the workmen, to get the fruit.
[35] And the workmen made an attack on his servants, giving blows to one,
putting another to death, and stoning another. [36] Again, he sent other
servants more in number than the first: and they did the same to them. [37]
But after that he sent his son to them, saying, They will have respect for
my son. [38] But when the workmen saw the son, they said among themselves,
This is he who will one day be the owner of the property; come, let us put
him to death and take his heritage. [39] And they took him and, driving him
out of the vine-garden, put him to death. [40] When, then, the lord of the
vine-garden comes, what will he do to those workmen? [41] They say to him,
He will put those cruel men to a cruel death, and will let out the
vine-garden to other workmen, who will give him the fruit when it is ready.
[42] Jesus says to them, Did you never see in the Writings, The stone which
the builders put on one side, the same has been made the chief stone of the
building: this was the Lord's doing, and it is a wonder in our eyes? [43]
For this reason I say to you, The kingdom of God will be taken away from
you, and will be given to a nation producing the fruits of it. [44] Any man
falling on this stone will be broken, but he on whom it comes down will be
crushed to dust. [45] And when his stories came to the ears of the chief
priests and the Pharisees, they saw that he was talking of them. [46] And
though they had a desire to take him, they were in fear of the people,
because in their eyes he was a prophet.
