Why couldn't the poor people of Jerusalem bring their own lamb to the temple?
The poor people of Jerusalem could not afford to go out to the Judean hill flocks, purchase a nice unblemished lamb, and bring it to the temple; they lacked the necessary funds and means. Instead, corrupt religious leaders set up a temple market and charged them inflated prices for inferior sacrifices.
Les explains that the money changers in the temple were part of graft and corruption. The poor people living in the small alleys and huts of Jerusalem could not afford to go out to the flocks in the Judean hills, buy a nice beautiful lamb, and bring it to the temple. They did not have what it took to do that, so they had to buy some kind of sacrifice for a peon's wage to fulfill the demands of their religion. The religious leaders set up a marketplace and charged them ten prices for whatever they had to have, whether a turtle dove or a little lamb with something wrong with it. God had a controversy with Israel because they were to bring a lamb without blemish, but these rascals took advantage of the poor, selling them the off scouring of stuff for sacrifice and charging bloated prices, with the same motivation people have today, to get rich.