Matthew 21:13-23

13 He said to them, "It is written, ¹'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but ²you make it a den of robbers."

14 ³And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

15 ⁴But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, ⁵"Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant,

16 and they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; ⁶have you never read, ⁷"'Out of the mouth of ⁸infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise'?"

17 And ⁹leaving them, he ¹⁰went out of the city to ¹¹Bethany and lodged there.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

18 ¹²In the morning, as he was returning to the city, ¹³he became hungry.

19 ¹⁴And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!" And the fig tree withered at once.

20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?"

21 And Jesus answered them, ¹⁵"Truly, I say to you, ¹⁶if you have faith and ¹⁷do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ¹⁸'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen.

22 And ¹⁹whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, ²⁰if you have faith."

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

23 ²¹And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him ²²as he was teaching, and said, ²³"By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?"