What Does Matthew 21:13 Mean?
And he said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a cave of robbers.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The verse exposes a sacred house as a lair when the people inside use its shelter to take from others.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now wherever a place called a house of prayer gives cover to predatory taking. Its name cannot hide what its shelter protects.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sacred name can make exploitation holy.
THE ROOT
λῃστῶν
lēistōn
GROWS FROM
λῃστ-
Robber or brigand; the word family also carries the sense of plundering and taking booty.
“robbers” in this verse is lēistōn. The Greek word points to banditry and plunder, sharpening the image beyond quiet theft. The house becomes a lair that shelters predatory taking.
ALSO GROWS
lēisteuō: To rob or plunder.
λῃστεύω
This verb makes the taking active: the house shelters people who prey on others.
lēisteia: Robbery or banditry.
λῃστεία
The shared word family names the predatory practice that turns the house into a den.
προσευχῆς
proseuchēs
GROWS FROM
εὐχ-
Prayer or vow; the root carries the sense of making an appeal or vow.
The Greek word for prayer is formed with the sense of directing an appeal. That purpose stands in stark tension with a house whose shelter serves those who take from others.
ALSO GROWS
euchomai: To pray or make a vow.
εὔχομαι
The verb shows prayer as an expressed appeal, the house’s stated purpose in the verse.
euchē: Prayer or vow.
εὐχή
This related noun keeps the appeal-and-vow sense present beneath the English word “prayer.”
οἶκος
oikos
GROWS FROM
οἰκ-
House or household.
The Greek word can name both a dwelling and the household within it. The verse places the house’s name beside what its people make of its shelter.
ALSO GROWS
oikia: A house or dwelling.
οἰκία
This related word keeps the physical shelter in view: the place itself is made a den.
oikonomia: Household management or stewardship.
οἰκονομία
The household sense draws attention to how the house is managed and what its order protects.
THE PATTERN
A house named for encounter is exposed by whether it opens access or shelters predatory taking.
Has this house, which is called by my name, become a cave of robbers, in your eyes? Look, I myself have seen it, says the LORD.Them also will I bring to my set-apart mountain, and gladden them in my house of prayer. Their ascending offerings and their sacrifices shall be received with favor upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.Its heads judge for a bribe, and its priests teach for a price, and its prophets divine for silver. Yet they lean their full weight upon the LORD and say, Is not the LORD in our midst? No harm can come upon us.THE THREAD
Has this house, which is called by my name, become a cave of robbers, in your eyes? Look, I myself have seen it, says the LORD.The Greek wording of Matthew repeats the phrase σπήλαιον λῃστῶν, “den of robbers,” found in the Greek text of Jeremiah. The shared image reveals the same condition: a house associated with God’s name becomes cover for predatory taking.
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