Not very long after the miracle at Cana, we are told that "the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem." The Law of Moses commanded, that at this feast every male among the Jews, should appear before the Lord in His holy temple; and Jesus, Who was to set an example of perfect obedience to all the commandments of God, journeyed from Capernaum up to Jerusalem, to keep the feast in the place which the Lord had chosen. When Jesus went up to this Passover, He drove the buyers and sellers out of the temple, an action repeated on a future occasion. At this time St. John says, that Jesus "found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 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 changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." It is not meant that these animals, or the money changers, were in the _building of the temple itself_, but in one of the courts surrounding it. So many creatures were required for sacrifices, that it was a great convenience for persons coming from a distance, to be able to buy what they wanted on the spot; and therefore it had long been the custom for traders to establish themselves outside of the outer Court of the temple, to supply the worshippers with oxen, sheep or doves. Then again, people coming from a distance, might bring their money in a large sum, and then they would want to have it changed for coins of less value; just as we might carry a sovereign, which would give us no trouble to carry, and then get it changed into shillings, when we wanted to spend it. Some Jews also, who came to the temple from time to time, lived in foreign countries, and they would naturally bring the money of those countries, which would be of no use in Judæa; and they would therefore wish to change their foreign money into the money current amongst the Jews. For these reasons the money changers were most useful; and they therefore established themselves with the traders, outside the temple Courts.