Matthew 21:12–19

Jesus at the Temple

21:12-16^pp — Mk 11:15–18; Lk 19:45–47

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying^a and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers^b and the benches of those selling doves.^c “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’^d but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”^e

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.^f But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,”^g they were indignant.^h

“Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,

“ ‘From the lips of children and infants

you have ordained praise’?”ⁱ

And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany,^j where he spent the night.

Jesus Curses a Fig Tree

21:18-22^pp — Mk 11:12–14,20–24

Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.^a