Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Jesus clears the temple courts of buying and selling, then names the house as a place of prayer instead of a place taken over by robbers. He also heals the blind and the lame there.

T¹²hen Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. ¹³And He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’ ” ¹⁴The blind and the lame came to Him at the temple, and He healed them.

The chief priests and scribes react with indignation when they see the wonders and hear children praising Jesus. He leaves the city and spends the night in Bethany outside Jerusalem.

¹⁵But the chief priests and scribes were indignant when they saw the wonders He performed and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” ¹⁶“Do You hear what these children are saying?” they asked. ¹⁷Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where He spent the night.