One Year Bible.

The Triumphal Entry

¹As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent out two of His disciples ²and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. ³If anyone asks, ‘Why are you doing this?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it and will return it shortly.’”

⁴So they went and found the colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. They untied it, ⁵and some who were standing there asked, “Why are you untying the colt?”

⁶The disciples answered as Jesus had instructed them, and the people gave them permission. ⁷Then they led the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, and He sat on it.

⁸Many in the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut from the fields. ⁹The ones who went ahead and those who followed were shouting:

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

¹⁰“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest!”

¹¹Then Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, He went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

¹²The next day, when they had left Bethany, Jesus was hungry. ¹³Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if there was any fruit on it. But when He reached it, He found nothing on it except leaves, since it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴Then He said to the tree, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again.” And His disciples heard this statement.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

¹⁵When they arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. ¹⁶And He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. ¹⁷Then Jesus began to teach them, and He declared, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

¹⁸When the chief priests and scribes heard this, they looked for a way to kill Him. For they were afraid of Him, because the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.

¹⁹And when evening came, Jesus and His disciples went out of the city.

The Withered Fig Tree

²⁰As they were walking back in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from its roots. ²¹Peter remembered it and said, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree You cursed has withered.”

²²“Have faith in God,” Jesus said to them. ²³“Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes that it will happen, it will be done for him. ²⁴Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

²⁵And when you stand to pray, if you hold anything against another, forgive it, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your trespasses as well.”

Jesus’ Authority Challenged

²⁷After their return to Jerusalem, Jesus was walking in the temple courts, and the chief priests, scribes, and elders came up to Him. ²⁸“By what authority are You doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave You the authority to do them?”

²⁹“I will ask you one question,” Jesus replied, “and if you answer Me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ³⁰John’s baptism — was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me!”

³¹They deliberated among themselves what they should answer: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will ask, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ ³²But if we say, ‘From men’ ...” they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John truly was a prophet. ³³So they answered, “We do not know.”

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

How Lonely Lies the City!

¹How lonely lies the city,

once so full of people!

She who was great among the nations

has become a widow.

The princess of the provinces

has become a slave.

²She weeps aloud in the night,

with tears upon her cheeks.

Among all her lovers

there is no one to comfort her.

All her friends have betrayed her;

they have become her enemies.

³Judah has gone into exile

under affliction and harsh slavery;

she dwells among the nations

but finds no place to rest.

All her pursuers have overtaken her

in the midst of her distress.

⁴The roads to Zion mourn,

because no one comes to her appointed feasts.

All her gates are deserted;

her priests groan,

her maidens grieve,

and she herself is bitter with anguish.

⁵Her foes have become her masters;

her enemies are at ease.

For the LORD has brought her grief

because of her many transgressions.

Her children have gone away

as captives before the enemy.

⁶All the splendor has departed

from the Daughter of Zion.

Her princes are like deer

that find no pasture;

they lack the strength to flee

in the face of the hunter.

⁷In the days of her affliction and wandering

Jerusalem remembers all the treasures

that were hers in days of old.

When her people fell into enemy hands

she received no help.

Her enemies looked upon her,

laughing at her downfall.

⁸Jerusalem has sinned greatly;

therefore she has become an object of scorn.

All who honored her now despise her,

for they have seen her nakedness;

she herself groans and turns away.

⁹Her uncleanness stains her skirts;

she did not consider her end.

Her downfall was astounding;

there was no one to comfort her.

Look, O LORD, on my affliction,

for the enemy has triumphed!

¹⁰The adversary has seized

all her treasures.

For she has seen the nations

enter her sanctuary—

those You had forbidden

to enter Your assembly.

¹¹All her people groan

as they search for bread.

They have traded their treasures for food

to keep themselves alive.

Look, O LORD, and consider,

for I have become despised.

¹²Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by?

Look around and see!

Is there any sorrow like mine,

which was inflicted on me,

which the LORD made me suffer

on the day of His fierce anger?

¹³He sent fire from on high,

and it overpowered my bones.

He spread a net for my feet

and turned me back.

He made me desolate,

faint all the day long.

¹⁴My transgressions are bound into a yoke,

knit together by His hand;

they are draped over my neck,

and the Lord has broken my strength.

He has delivered me into the hands

of those I cannot withstand.

¹⁵The Lord has rejected

all the mighty men in my midst;

He has summoned an army against me

to crush my young warriors.

Like grapes in a winepress,

the Lord has trampled the Virgin Daughter of Judah.

¹⁶For these things I weep;

my eyes flow with tears.

For there is no one nearby to comfort me,

no one to revive my soul.

My children are destitute

because the enemy has prevailed.

¹⁷Zion stretches out her hands,

but there is no one to comfort her.

The LORD has decreed against Jacob

that his neighbors become his foes.

Jerusalem has become

an unclean thing among them.

¹⁸The LORD is righteous,

yet I rebelled against His command.

Listen, all you people;

look upon my suffering.

My young men and maidens

have gone into captivity.

¹⁹I called out to my lovers,

but they have betrayed me.

My priests and elders

perished in the city

while they searched for food

to keep themselves alive.

²⁰See, O LORD, how distressed I am!

I am churning within;

my heart is pounding within me,

for I have been most rebellious.

Outside, the sword bereaves;

inside, there is death.

²¹People have heard my groaning,

but there is no one to comfort me.

All my enemies have heard of my trouble;

they are glad that You have caused it.

May You bring the day You have announced,

so that they may become like me.

²²Let all their wickedness come before You,

and deal with them

as You have dealt with me

because of all my transgressions.

For my groans are many,

and my heart is faint.

God’s Anger over Jerusalem

¹How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion

with the cloud of His anger!

He has cast the glory of Israel

from heaven to earth.

He has abandoned His footstool

in the day of His anger.

²Without pity the Lord has swallowed up

all the dwellings of Jacob.

In His wrath He has demolished

the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah.

He brought to the ground and defiled

her kingdom and its princes.

³In fierce anger He has cut off

every horn of Israel

and withdrawn His right hand

at the approach of the enemy.

He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire

that consumes everything around it.

⁴He has bent His bow like an enemy;

His right hand is positioned.

Like a foe He has killed

all who were pleasing to the eye;

He has poured out His wrath like fire

on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.

⁵The Lord is like an enemy;

He has swallowed up Israel.

He has swallowed up all her palaces

and destroyed her strongholds.

He has multiplied mourning and lamentation

for the Daughter of Judah.

⁶He has laid waste His tabernacle like a garden booth;

He has destroyed His place of meeting.

The LORD has made Zion forget

her appointed feasts and Sabbaths.

In His fierce anger

He has despised both king and priest.

⁷The Lord has rejected His altar;

He has abandoned His sanctuary;

He has delivered the walls of her palaces

into the hand of the enemy.

They have raised a shout in the house of the LORD

as on the day of an appointed feast.

⁸The LORD determined to destroy

the wall of the Daughter of Zion.

He stretched out a measuring line

and did not withdraw His hand from destroying.

He made the ramparts and walls lament;

together they waste away.

⁹Her gates have sunk into the ground;

He has destroyed and shattered their bars.

Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations,

the law is no more,

and even her prophets

find no vision from the LORD.

¹⁰The elders of the Daughter of Zion

sit on the ground in silence.

They have thrown dust on their heads

and put on sackcloth.

The young women of Jerusalem

have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹My eyes fail from weeping;

I am churning within.

My heart is poured out in grief

over the destruction of the daughter of my people,

because children and infants faint

in the streets of the city.

¹²They cry out to their mothers:

“Where is the grain and wine?”

as they faint like the wounded

in the streets of the city,

as their lives fade away

in the arms of their mothers.

¹³What can I say for you?

To what can I compare you,

O Daughter of Jerusalem?

To what can I liken you,

that I may console you,

O Virgin Daughter of Zion?

For your wound is as deep as the sea.

Who can ever heal you?

¹⁴The visions of your prophets

were empty and deceptive;

they did not expose your guilt

to ward off your captivity.

The burdens they envisioned for you

were empty and misleading.

¹⁵All who pass by

clap their hands at you in scorn.

They hiss and shake their heads

at the Daughter of Jerusalem:

“Is this the city that was called

the perfection of beauty,

the joy of all the earth?”

¹⁶All your enemies

open their mouths against you.

They hiss and gnash their teeth,

saying, “We have swallowed her up.

This is the day for which we have waited.

We have lived to see it!”

¹⁷The LORD has done what He planned;

He has accomplished His decree,

which He ordained in days of old;

He has overthrown you without pity.

He has let the enemy gloat over you

and exalted the horn of your foes.

¹⁸The hearts of the people

cry out to the Lord.

O wall of the Daughter of Zion,

let your tears run down like a river

day and night.

Give yourself no relief,

and your eyes no rest.

¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night

from the first watch of the night.

Pour out your heart like water

in the presence of the Lord.

Lift up your hands to Him

for the lives of your children

who are fainting from hunger

on the corner of every street.

²⁰Look, O LORD, and consider:

Whom have You ever treated like this?

Should women eat their offspring,

the infants they have nurtured?

Should priests and prophets be killed

in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹Both young and old lie together

in the dust of the streets.

My young men and maidens

have fallen by the sword.

You have slain them in the day of Your anger;

You have slaughtered them without compassion.

²²You summoned my terrors on every side,

as for the day of an appointed feast.

In the day of the LORD’s anger

no one escaped or survived;

my enemy has destroyed

those I nurtured and reared.