The Cleansing of the Temple

12 And Jesus went into the Temple and sent out all who were trading there, overturning the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those trading in doves. 13 And he said to them, It is in the Writings, My house is to be named a house of prayer, but you are making it a hole of thieves. 14 And the blind and the broken in body came to him in the Temple, and he made them well. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the works of power which he did, and the children crying out in the Temple, Glory to the son of David, they were angry and said to him, 16 Have you any idea what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes: have you not seen in the Writings, From the lips of children and babies at the breast you have made your praise complete? 17 And he went away from them, and went out of the town to Bethany, and was there for the night.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Matthew 21:12-17

Commentary on Matthew 21:12-17

(Read Matthew 21:12-17)

Christ found some of the courts of the temple turned into a market for cattle and things used in the sacrifices, and partly occupied by the money-changers. Our Lord drove them from the place, as he had done at his entering upon his ministry, John 2:13-17. His works testified of him more than the hosannas; and his healing in the temple was the fulfilling the promise, that the glory of the latter house should be greater than the glory of the former. If Christ came now into many parts of his visible church, how many secret evils he would discover and cleanse! And how many things daily practised under the cloak of religion, would he show to be more suitable to a den of thieves than to a house of prayer!