John 2:16

And Jesus went to the men that sold pigeons, and he shouted, “Get those birds out of here. This is my father’s house. Stop turning it into a shop.”

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.

In Context

15Jesus saw them doing that. So he made a whip out of some rope, and he used it to hunt those men and animals out of the yard. He went to the men that changed the money, and he pushed their tables over. All their money went everywhere on the ground.

17Jesus’s followers saw him do that, and they remembered that a long time ago God told one of his men to write this in God’s book, “I really love God’s house. I love it so much that I will do anything to look after it.” Then they knew that God’s man wrote that about Jesus.

Read all of John 2

Cross References

Luke 2:49Jesus said, “Why did you look everywhere for me? I had to be in my father’s special house. You should know that.”

John 8:49Jesus said, “No. I haven’t got a bad spirit in me. I respect my father, but you don’t respect me.

John 20:17Jesus said, “Don’t hold on to me. I haven’t gone up to my father yet. I want you to go to my followers and tell them that I am going back up to my father, and he is the father of all of you too. He is my God, and he is your God too.”

1 Timothy 6:5Then they keep on arguing with each other. You see, they listened to those wrong teachers and those teachers tricked them. Those wrong teachers made them think the wrong way, so they don’t really know the true message. They think that if they follow God’s way they will get a lot of money, but they are wrong.

Matthew Henry on John 2:13-23

Temple-Merchandise Punished; Christ's Death and Resurrection Foretold. 12 After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days. 13 And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, 14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study John 2:16