Ben-David Enters Jerusalem

11 Now as they draw near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, to the Mount of Olives, Yeshua sends two of His disciples ² and says to them, “Go into the village ahead of you. Right away as you enter it, you will find a colt tied up that no one has ever sat upon.^[a] Untie it and bring it. ³ If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Master needs it.’ And right away he will send it back here.”^[b]

⁴ They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a door. And they untied it. ⁵ Some people standing there began saying to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”

⁶ They answered just as Yeshua had told them, and the people let them go. ⁷ And they brought the colt to Yeshua and laid their cloaks on it, and He sat on it. ⁸ Many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread branches cut from the fields. ^{[c] 9} Those going before and those following kept shouting,

¹¹ And He entered Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around at everything, He went out to Bethany with the Twelve, since it was already late.

The Fruit of the Faithful

¹² The next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry. ¹³ Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if He would find any fruit on it. When He came up to it, He found nothing except leaves, because it wasn’t the season for figs. ¹⁴ And He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening.

¹⁵ Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the Temple and started to drive out those selling and buying in the Temple. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those selling doves, ¹⁶ and He wouldn’t let anyone carry goods through the Temple. ¹⁷ And He began to teach them, saying, “Is it not written,

¹⁸ The ruling kohanim and Torah scholars heard this and began looking for a way to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, because the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching. ¹⁹ Whenever evening came, Yeshua and His disciples would leave the city.

²⁰ As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree shriveled from the roots. ²¹ Peter remembered and said to Yeshua, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree You cursed has shriveled up!”

²² And Yeshua answered, saying to them, “Have faith in God! ²³ Amen, I tell you, if someone says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but trusts that what he says is happening, so shall it be for him. ²⁴ For this reason I say to you, whatever you pray and ask, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵ Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your transgressions.” ^(26) [g]

A Question for a Question

²⁷ Again they come to Jerusalem. While Yeshua was walking in the Temple, the ruling kohanim, Torah scholars, and elders come up to Him. ²⁸ And they start saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? Who gave You this authority to do these things?”

²⁹ Yeshua said to them, “I will put one question to you. Answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. ³⁰ The immersion of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me!”

³¹ They began to dialogue among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ ³² But if we say, ‘From men’. . .?” They were afraid of the crowd, for all held that John really was a prophet. ³³ So answering Yeshua, they say, “We don’t know.”

And Yeshua tells them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”