Matthew 21:13. It is written. The first clause is from Isaiah 56:7; the second from Jeremiah 7:7.

Ye make it a den of robbers. What they did here was a sign of the general venality and corruption, a desecration of a place of worship for purposes of gain, ill-gotten often enough. Isaiah adds, ‘for all nations' (which Mark retains), alluding to the extension of God's blessings to the Gentiles. This driving of bargains in the place where the Gentiles could come and pray, was a robbery, a contemptuous disregard of the rights and privileges of the Gentiles. At the beginning of His ministry (at the first Passover) our Lord had performed a similar cleansing, narrated by John (John 2:13-17). Such a cleansing was appropriate both at the beginning and the close of Christ's ministry. In the first case it was more the act of a reformer; here it assumes a Messianic character. In both we find power, holy zeal for the honor of the Lord of the temple; hence an outbreak of passion is inconceivable.

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Old Testament