He
said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”
Matthew 21:13
Matthew 21 [10.] When he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” The multitudes said, “This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Matthew 21 [12.] Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”
Matthew 21 [14.] The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the son of David!” they were indignant, and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?”
Jesus said to them, “Yes. Did you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing babies you have perfected praise?’”
Meaning:
After his royal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus went into the temple, drove out those who bought and sold there, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of the dove sellers (Matthew 21:12). This verse gives his explanation. He joins two prophetic sayings to show what God intended his house to be and what it had become.
- “It is written”
Jesus did not act on his own opinion. He appealed to Scripture, the authority every Jew accepted. The first quotation comes from Isaiah: “for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). In that chapter God promises that foreigners who join themselves to him will be brought to his holy mountain and made “joyful in my house of prayer.”
- “My house shall be called a house of prayer”
The temple was the place where God put his name and where his people met him in worship and prayer. The trading took place in the great outer court, the Court of the Gentiles, the only area where non-Jews could come to pray. Pilgrims needed animals for sacrifice and temple coins for the temple tax, so the business had a purpose. But it had filled the place of prayer with noise, bargaining and profit. Mark records the full phrase, “a house of prayer for all the nations” (Mark 11:17), showing that the Gentiles were being crowded out.
- “But you have made it a den of robbers!”
The second quotation comes from Jeremiah’s temple sermon. The people of Judah stole, murdered and worshiped idols, then came to the temple and felt safe. God asked, “Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?” (Jeremiah 7:11). A den is where robbers hide after their crimes. Jesus was saying that the temple had become a hiding place for people whose hearts were far from God, and that its leaders were profiting from worship.
- The Lord comes to his temple
The prophet Malachi had foretold that “the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple,” and asked, “But who can endure the day of his coming?” (Malachi 3:1-2). In cleansing the temple Jesus acted as its Lord, with the right to say what “my house” must be. John records a similar cleansing early in Jesus’ ministry, when he said, “Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!” (John 2:16).
The Significance of Matthew 21:13
- A house of prayer
Paul asked believers, “Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). Our gatherings and our lives should be marked by prayer, not by profit or self-interest.
- Open to all nations
God’s house is meant for all peoples. Nothing in our worship should keep outsiders from coming to him.
Cross-References:
Isaiah 56:7: "for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples." The first prophecy Jesus quoted.
Jeremiah 7:11: "Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?" The second.
John 2:16: "Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!" Jesus’ zeal for his Father’s house.
Conclusion: After driving the traders from the temple, Jesus explained his action from Scripture: God’s house is to be called a house of prayer, as Isaiah said, but it had been turned into a den of robbers, as Jeremiah warned. The verse shows Jesus as the Lord of the temple, zealous for true worship, and reminds believers that God’s house is meant for prayer and open to all nations.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible