⁴¹ As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it^{(A) 42} and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.^{(B) 44} They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.^(C) They will not leave one stone on another,^(D) because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming^(E) to you.”

Jesus at the Temple^(F)

⁴⁵ When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. ⁴⁶ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’^[a];^(G) but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’^[b]”^(H)

⁴⁷ Every day he was teaching at the temple.^(I) But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him.^{(J) 48} Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

The Authority of Jesus Questioned^(K)

20 One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts^(L) and proclaiming the good news,^(M) the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. ² “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”^(N)

³ He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: ⁴ John’s baptism^(O)—was it from heaven, or of human origin?”

⁵ They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people^(P) will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”^(Q)

⁷ So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”

⁸ Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”