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Verse 9

Zechariah 9:9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion To give still greater encouragement to God’s people, the prophet, after uttering the foregoing promises, was carried on by the Divine Spirit, which influenced him, to announce a still more remarkable instance of God’s special kindness to them, namely, the coming of their Messiah, or king, with reference to which this passage is cited in two places of the New Testament, Matthew 21:5; John 12:15; so that we can have no doubt of the application. But, from comparing these three texts, we may perceive that the evangelical writers were not over-scrupulous of adhering to the exact words of their original, whether they cited from the Hebrew or from the Greek; but were satisfied with giving the true sense of the passage, and taking more or less of it, as circumstances seemed to require. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee He that is so often described in the prophets as the king of Israel; that was known by that name among the Jews in our Saviour’s time, and is repeatedly called by the name of David their king: see the margin. To him the kingdom did properly belong, and to him the gathering of the people was to be, Genesis 49:10. He is just, and having salvation Or, He is righteous, and the Saviour, as the ancient versions have it. He is that righteous branch, and the Lord our righteousness, as he is described by Jeremiah 23:5; who was to execute justice and judgment in the earth; and the righteousness and salvation, that is, the Righteous One and Saviour, promised Isaiah 62:1. Unlike the proud and destructive conquerors of the earth, he shall not enter with a mighty cavalcade of horse, but shall come lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. Although it is certain that the ancient Jews understood this prophecy of the Messiah, yet that this divine person, this king of Israel, should come unto them riding upon an ass, which, notwithstanding that in former ages patriarchs and judges thought it no disgrace to ride upon them, yet was then looked upon as below the dignity of any person of eminence, must, at the uttering of this prophecy, have appeared a very mysterious and improbable circumstance. But we who know that the only time when the Lord Jesus entered publicly into Jerusalem, he thought proper, as an example of humility and meekness, and of indifference to worldly pomp, to ride upon a young ass, or colt; and that, at the same time, the whole multitude were seized with such a sudden and extraordinary impulse of joy, that they spread their garments in the way, and cut down branches of trees and strowed them in the way, shouting unanimously, HOSANNAH, BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD we, that know this remarkable circumstance, cannot but be greatly struck with this prophecy, as an admirable instance of the divine prescience, and a strong proof of the truth of Christianity.

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