VERS. XII.
I. THERE was always a constant market in the Temple in that place, which was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉the shops; where every day was sold wine, salt, oyl and other requisites to Sacrifices; As also Oxen and Sheep, in the spacious Court of the Gentiles.
II. The neerness of the Passover had made the market greater; for innummerable beasts being requisite to this solemnity, they were brought hither to be sold. This brings to mind a story of Bava ben Buta.eHe coming one day into the Court, found it quite empty of beasts. Let their houses, said he, be laid wast, who have laid wast the house of our God. He sent for three thousand of the Sheep of Kedar; and having examined whether they were without spot, brought them into the mountain of the house, that is, into the Court of the Gentiles.
Who those mony changers were, may be learn'd very well from the Talmud and Maimo∣nides in the treatise Shekalim.
Page 225fIt is an Affirmative precept of the Law, that every Israelite should give half a Shekel year∣ly; ev'n the poor who live by alms, are obliged to this; and must either beg the mony of others or sell their clothes, to pay half a shekel, as it is said,g The rich shall give no more, and the poor shall give no less.
hIn the first day of the month Adar, they made a publick Proclamation concerning these shekels, that every one should provide his half shekel, and be ready to pay it. Therefore on the fifteenth day of the same month, the Exchangers (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) sat in every City, civilly requi∣ring this mony: they receiv'd it of those that gave it, and compelled those that did not. On the five and twentieth day of the same month, they sat in the Temple: and then compelled them to give; and from him that did not give, they forced a pledge, ev'n his very coat.
iThey sat in the Cities, with two chests before them, in one of which they laid up the mony of the present year, and in the other the mony of the year past. They sat in the Temple with thirteen chests before them; the first was for the mony of the present year; the second, for the year past; the third, for the mony that was offered to buy Pigeons, &c. They called these chests 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉Trumpets, because like Trumpets, they had a narrow mouth, and a wide belly.
kIt is necessary that every one should have half a shekel to pay for himself; Therefore when he comes to the Exchanger, to change a shekel for two half shekels, he is obliged to allow him some gain which is called〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) Kolbon. And when two pay one shekel (between them)〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉each of them is obliged to allow the same gain, or fee.
And not much after, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉How much is that gain? At that time, when they paid pence, for the half shekel, a Kolbon (or the fee that was paid to the mony∣changer) was half a Mea, that is, the twelfth part of a penny, and never less. But the Kol∣bons were not like the half shekel, but the Exchangers laid them by themselves, till the holy Treasury were paid out of them. You see what these mony-changers were, and whence they had their name. You see that Christ did not overturn the Chests, in which the holy mony was laid up, but the Tables, on which they traffiqued for this un holy gain.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉Sellers of Doves. See the Talmudic Treatise of that title. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 :〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. lDoves were at one time sold at Jerusalem for pence of gold. Where∣upon Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel said,〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉By this Temple, I will not lye down this night unless they be sold for pence of silver, &c. Going into the Council house he thus decreed, A woman of five undoubted labours, or of five undoubted fluxes, shall be bound only to make one offering; whereby Doves were sold that very day for two farthings. The offering for women after childbirth, and fluxes, for their purification, were Pigeons, &c. m But now, when they went up to Jerusalem with their offerings at the Feasts only, there was at that time a greater number of beasts, Pigeons and Turtles, &c. requisite. See what we have said at the fifth Chapter, and the three and twentieth verse.
