And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Christ cites Isaiah and Jeremiah both: the temple was meant to be a house of prayer for all nations, where the Gentiles would be gathered into the Church of God to worship the true God. Yet the Jews have profaned it by turning it into a market. God dedicated this place for worship; how base and wicked to pervert it to such purposes.
AI summary
The temple is God's house, meant for prayer, not for the Jews alone, but for the Gentiles in the court assigned to them. Instead, the priests and officers have made it a den where they shelter themselves, robbing both God and man under the mask of religion, devouring widows' houses through extortion and unlawful gain.
AI summary
Thieves devise their crimes in hidden dens; these merchants imitate them, making the temple a place of gain where they cheat and defraud the poor, selling sacrificial animals at enormous prices and robbing those forced by necessity to buy. The buyers and sellers obeyed Christ because their own consciences condemned them, and they knew He had authority to command.
AI summary