Cleansing the Temple

Plain English Version (PEV)

Mat 21:12–17

15 He wouldn’t let anyone carry these things through God’s ceremony house, not even through its yard.
16 Jesus then taught everyone this way, he said, “God got one of his men to write these words, and they are in God's book, ‘God wants his special house to be a place for people from every tribe to come and pray in.’ But you mob have turned God’s house into a place where crooks steal from people.”
17 The Jewish law teachers and ceremony leaders were very upset about this. But all the people were really happy with Jesus and they were excited whenever they heard him teaching, so the Jewish leaders were afraid of him. After they heard what Jesus did at God’s house they started to work out a way to kill him.
18 That night Jesus and his followers went back out of Jerusalem.
19 In the morning Jesus and his followers walked past that fruit tree that he talked to the day before. They looked at it. It was dead and dry now, right down to the ground.