Joh 2:13-17 | PNT | STEP | The Jews' passover was at hand . For institution of the passover, see . It was celebrated yearly at Jerusalem. This is the first that the Lord attended after he began his ministry, and of this attendance there is no mention in the other Gospels.

John 2:13-17

The Jews' passover was at hand. For institution of the passover, see Ex 12:1-28. It was celebrated yearly at Jerusalem. This is the first that the Lord attended after he began his ministry, and of this attendance there is no mention in the other Gospels. Found in the temple. In the Court of the Gentiles, which was within the temple walls.

Those that sold oxen and sheep and doves. These were for the sacrifices. The great crowds who came to Jerusalem at this time could not bring victims, and the traffic in oxen, sheep, kids and doves became enormous. It would have been proper enough if it had been conducted at stockyards, but the priests made a monopoly of it and installed it right in the temple. The Court of the Gentiles, "a house of prayer for all nations" (Mr 11:15-19), was filled with cattle, ordure, and the din of traffic.

The changers of money. Every Jew paid a half-shekel annually to the support of the temple (Ex 30:13), but Gentile money was the coin in usual circulation, and this was refused at the temple. These money brokers, agents of the priests, furnished Jewish coin at a heavy charge. Edersheim says that this traffic alone cleared the priests what would be equivalent to about $300,000 a year. Made a scourge of small cords. Rather as a symbol than for use.

Drove them all out. He had the right to cleanse his Father's house and here first asserts his authority. The traffickers fled before his glance, awed by a superhuman majesty. Make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. How often still the Father's house is so desecrated! This cleansing was a different one from that which occurred three years later at the close of his ministry (Mt 21:12). The zeal of thINE house. Quoted from Ps 69:9.