Luke 19:46

Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:41-48 Who can behold the holy Jesus, looking forward to the miseries that awaited his murderers, weeping over the city where his precious blood was about to be shed, without seeing that the likeness of God in the believer, consists much in good-will and compassion? Surely those cannot be right who take up any doctrines of truth, so as to be hardened towards their fellow-sinners. But let every one remember, that though Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he executed awful vengeance upon it. Though he delights not in the death of a sinner, yet he will surely bring to pass his awful threatenings on those who neglect his salvation. The Son of God did not weep vain and causeless tears, nor for a light matter, nor for himself. He knows the value of souls, the weight of guilt, and how low it will press and sink mankind. May he then come and cleanse our hearts by his Spirit, from all that defiles. May sinners, on every side, become attentive to the words of truth and salvation.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 21:12-13.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Lu 19:45-48. Second Cleansing of the Temple and Subsequent Teaching.

45, 46. As the first cleansing was on His first visit to Jerusalem (Joh 2:13-22), so this second cleansing was on His last.

den of thieves—banded together for plunder, reckless of principle. The mild term "house of merchandise," used on the former occasion, was now unsuitable.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 19:45"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Saying unto them, it is written,.... In Isaiah 56:7

my house is the house of prayer; built and devoted for that service:

but ye have made it a den of thieves; which clause is not written in the above prophecy, but are the words of Christ referring to Jeremiah 7:11. The Ethiopic version adds, "and robbers"; and the Persic version adds, "and a place of cut-purses"; See Gill on Matthew 21:13.

Geneva Study Bible

Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 19:46. καὶ ἔσται: the καὶ, a well-attested reading, does not occur in the text quoted (Isaiah 56:7). The words πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, which do occur, are strangely omitted by Lk., the Gentile evangelist, perhaps to sharpen the contrast between the ideal—a house of prayer, and the reality—a den of robbers, i.e., of dishonest traders, or it may be because the temple was now in ruins. The last part of the saying is from Jeremiah 7:11.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

46. My house is the house of prayer] Isaiah 56:7. See on Luke 1:10, Luke 18:10.

a den of thieves] Rather, a brigands’ cave. Our Lord had seen many of these brigands’ caves on the steep rocky sides of the Wady Hamam and elsewhere. Comp. Jeremiah 7:11, “Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes?” It became still more a murderers’ cave when the sicarii made its pavement swim with blood (Jos. B. J. iv. 3, §§ 7, 10).

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 19:46. Γέγραπται, it is written) See Matthew 21:13, note.

Luke 19:46

Vincent's Word Studies

Thieves (λῃστῶν)

See on Matthew 26:55; Luke 10:30; Mark 11:17.