Cleansing the Temple Complex

¹² Jesus went into the temple complex^[a](A) and drove out all those buying and selling in the temple. He overturned the money changers’ tables and the chairs of those selling doves.^{(B) 13} And He said to them, “It is written, My house will be called a house of prayer.^[b] But you are making it a den of thieves!”^(C)[c]

Children Praise Jesus

¹⁴ The blind and the lame came to Him in the temple complex, and He healed them. ¹⁵ When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders that He did and the children shouting in the temple complex, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant ¹⁶ and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?”

“Yes,” Jesus told them. “Have you never read:

¹⁷ Then He left them, went out of the city to Bethany,^(E) and spent the night there.

The Barren Fig Tree

¹⁸ Early in the morning,^(F) as He was returning to the city, He was hungry. ¹⁹ Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He went up to it and found nothing on it except leaves. And He said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” At once the fig tree withered.

The Barren Fig Tree Is Cursed

¹² The^(A) next day when they came out from Bethany, He was hungry. ¹³ After seeing in the distance a fig^(B) tree with leaves, He went to find out if there was anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit^(C) from you again!”^(D) And His disciples^(E) heard it.

Cleansing the Temple Complex

¹⁵ They came to Jerusalem,^(F) and He went into the temple complex^(G) and began to throw out those buying and selling in the temple. He overturned the money changers’^(H) tables and the chairs of those selling doves, ¹⁶ and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple complex.

¹⁷ Then He began to teach them: “Is it not written,^(I) My house^(J) will be called a house of prayer^(K) for all nations?^[a] But you have made it a den of thieves!”^{(L)[b] 18} Then the chief priests and the scribes^(M) heard it and started looking for a way to destroy Him. For they were afraid^(N) of Him, because the whole crowd was astonished by His teaching.

¹⁹ And whenever evening came, they would go out of the city.

Cleansing the Temple Complex

¹³ The Jewish Passover^(A) was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.^{(B) 14} In the temple complex^(C) He found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and He also found the money changers sitting there. ¹⁵ After making a whip out of cords,^(D) He drove everyone out of the temple complex with their sheep^(E) and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. ¹⁶ He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning My Father’s^(F) house^(G) into a marketplace!”^[a](H)

¹⁷ And His disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal^(I) for Your house will consume^(J) Me.^(K)[b]

8 ¹ But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.^(A)

An Adulteress Forgiven

² At dawn He went to the temple complex^(B) again, and all the people were coming to Him.^(C) He sat down^(D) and began to teach them.

The Plot to Kill Jesus

⁴⁵ Therefore, many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what He did believed in Him.^{(A) 46} But some of them went to the Pharisees^(B) and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷ So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin^(C) and said, “What are we going to do since this man does many signs? ⁴⁸ If we let Him continue in this way, everyone will believe in Him! Then the Romans^(D) will come and remove both our place^[a] and our nation.”

⁴⁹ One of them, Caiaphas,^(E) who was high priest^(F) that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰ You’re not considering that it is to your^[b] advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.”^{(G) 51} He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die^(H) for the nation, ⁵² and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children^(I) of God. ⁵³ So from that day on they plotted to kill Him.^(J)