The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 312

a muket hed been established, with the is oalled by my Name, become a den of robbers connive.nee, and much to the pecuniary in your eyes?"). He brings out in strong emolument, of the priests. These let out the oontrast the high design and use of the se.cred a?M, of which they were the appointed house of God (an allusion speeially appro- gaardie.ns, to greedy and irreligious traders, prie.te at the coming festivo.1), and the vile who made age.in of others' piety. Wc find e.nd profe.ne;purposes to which the greed and no trace oftbiBme.rket in the Old Testament; impiety of men had subjected it. Ye have it probably -w-es established after the Cap- made it; Revised Version, ye make it; and tivity, wbenoe the Jews brought beck that so many modern editors on good manusoript taste for commercial bueinese and skill in authority. These base traffickers ho.d turned financial matters for which they have ever the hallowed courts into a cavern where rob- since been celebrated. In the eyes ofworldly- bers stored their ill-gotten plunder. It may minded men the sanctity of e. building and also be ea.id that to mo.ke the placo of its appendages was no impediment to traffic prayer for all the nations a market for e.nd trade, hence they were glad t.o utilize beasts was e. robbery of the rights of the Gen- the temple court, under the aanction of the tiles (Le.nge). And Christ here vindicated priests, for the oonvenienoe of those who the &&netity of the house of God; the Lord, came from all regions t.o celebrate the great according t.o the propheoy of Mo.lachi (iii. festive.la. Here was sold all that was re- 1-3), had suddenly come to his temple to quired for the saorifioee which worshippers refine and purify, to show the.t none oan were minded to o:ffer---e.nime.ls for victims, profane what is dedice.ted to the service of meal, incense, salt, eto. The &Cl8.ndalous God without most certain loss and punish- abuse of the holy precincts, or the pie.in traces ment. of it (if, as it was late in the de.y, the Ver. 14.-The blind and the lame oame tre.fliokers themselves had departed for a to him in the temple. This notice is peculie.r time), Christ had observed at his previous t.o St. Matthew, though St. Luke (xix. 47) visit, when he "looked round about upon e.ll mentions that "he taught de.ily in the things" (Merk :ri. 11), e.nd now he pro- temple." An old expositor has remarked ceeded to remedy the crying evil The that Christ first e.s King purified his pale.ea, details of the expulsion ere not given. On the and then took his see.t therein, e.nd of his first occesion, we e.re told, he used "a scourge roye.l bounty distributed gifts to his people. of sme.ll cor~;" es fa.r as we know, at this It was a new fulfilment of the prophecy of time he effected the purification unarmed Isaiah (u:xv. 4-6), which spake of Messie.h and alone. It was a marvellous impnlse the.t coming to open the eyes of the blind, to nn- forced the greedy crew t.o obey the order of stop the ears of the deaf, to me.kc the lame this miknown Me.n; their o"W"D consciences me.n leap e.s an he.rt. For acts of sacrilege me.de them timid: they fled in dismay before which profaned the temple precincts, he sub- the stem indignation of his eye, deserted stituted acts of mercy which he.llowed them; their gainful trade to escape the reproach the good Physicie.n takes the ple.ce of the of that invincible zeal. lloney-ohangers. greedy trafficker: the den of thieves becomes These persons exchanged (for a certe.in per- a beneficent hospital. How many were the oentage) foreign money or other coins for the acts of bee.ling, we are not told ; but the half-shekel demanded from all adnlt.s for the words point to the relief of numberless service of the temple (see on eh. xvii. 24). sufferers, none of whom were sent empty They may have lent money to the needy. away. The sellen also probably played into their Ver. 15.-The ohief priests. This term hands by refusing to recei'l"e any but current is generally applied to the high priest's Jewish money in exchange for their we.res. deputies and the heads of the twenty-four It is also certain that no coins stamped with courses, but it seems here to mee.n certe.in a heathen symbol, ar bee.ring a heathen sacerdotal members of the Sanhedrin, to monarch's iwe.ge, conld be paid into the whom supreme e.nthority was delegated by temple treasury. The see.ta ot them that the Romans or Herodie.ns (see Josephus, sold (the) doves. These birds were used by • Ant.,' l[l[, 10. 5). They formed a wealthy, the poor in the pls.ce of costlier victims (see aristocratical body, and were many of them Lev. xii. 6 ; xiv. 22 ; Luke ii 24). The sellers Saddncees. They joined with the scribes were often women, who sat with tables before in ex pressing their outre.ged feeling, whethe, them on which were set oages containing the simulated or real. The wonderful things (1'ti do'l"ea. B«vµ.&.u,a); e.n expression found nowhere else Ver. 13.-It is written. Jesus oon1inns in the New Testament. It refers to the his action by the word of Scripture. He cleansing of the temple and the cures lately oombines in one severe sentence e. passage performed there. Children orying in the from Isa. lvi 7 (" Mine hoW10 ehe.H be ea!J, ,I temple. This fact is mentioned only by St. &n house of prayer for all peoples"), au<t Matthew. Jesus loved children, and they one from Jer. vii 11 (" Is this house, which loved and followed him, taking up the OIL XXL 1-46.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. MATTHEW. 317