Matthew 21:13

ποιεῖτε (א B L) for ἐποιήσατε (C D E and the later uncials).

13. γέγραπται. See note, ch. Matthew 2:5.

ὁ οἶκος κ.τ.λ. The passage is quoted from Isaiah 56:7, but, with the omission of the words πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, these are included in the quotation by St Mark but not by St Luke. The context in Isaiah treats of the admission of the Gentiles: ‘Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him’ (Matthew 21:8).

ποιεῖτε σπήλαιον λῃστῶν, ‘are making it a cave of robbers or bandits,’ cp. Jeremiah 7:11, ‘Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes?’ Thus two separate passages of the O.T. are combined in a contrasted or parallel form. The context of these words is strikingly suggestive: ‘If ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings … and shed not innocent blood in this place … then will I cause you to dwell in this place in the land that I gave to your fathers for ever and ever.’ The caves of Palestine had always been refuges for the lawless, and in the reign of Herod the Great the robbers dwelling in caves had rebelled against him and resisted his power, Jos. Ant. I. 12. Possibly this thought may be present here: ‘Ye have made my house a stronghold of rebels against God and the Messiah, when it ought to be a garrison of loyal subjects.’ Also the disputes of the traffickers resembled the wrangling of bandits in their caves. Comp. σπήλ. λῃστῶν with the less severe οἶκον ἐμπορίου of the first ‘cleansing’ (John 2:16).