The Cleansing of the Temple

12 And Jesus entered into the temple [of God], and cast out all that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those that sold the doves. 13 And he says to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of robbers. 14 And blind and lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 And when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders which he wrought, and the children crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were indignant, 16 and said to him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus says to them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? 17 And leaving them he went forth out of the city to Bethany, and there he passed 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!