Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!This phrase calls for exuberant joy from the people of Zion, a term often used to refer to Jerusalem or the people of Israel. The call to rejoice is significant in the context of Zechariah, a prophet who ministered during the post-exilic period when the Jewish people were returning from Babylonian captivity. The joy is not just moderate but "greatly," indicating the magnitude of the event being foretold. This joy is rooted in the anticipation of the coming of the Messiah, a central hope in Jewish eschatology. Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem!
The command to "shout in triumph" suggests a victory or deliverance. Jerusalem, the city of David, holds a special place in biblical history as the center of Jewish worship and the location of the Temple. The triumph is not merely political but spiritual, pointing to the ultimate victory over sin and death through the Messiah. This phrase connects to the broader biblical theme of God’s deliverance and the establishment of His kingdom. See, your King comes to you,
This is a prophetic announcement of the coming King, who is the Messiah. The phrase "your King" emphasizes a personal and covenantal relationship between the King and His people. In the historical context, Israel had experienced a series of foreign rulers, and the promise of a King coming to them would have been a source of hope. This King is not distant but comes directly to His people, fulfilling the promises made to David about an everlasting kingdom (2 Samuel 7:12-16). righteous and victorious,
The King is described as "righteous," indicating His moral and ethical perfection, aligning with the character of God. "Victorious" suggests that He has achieved victory, not through conventional means of warfare, but through divine power and justice. This aligns with the messianic prophecies in Isaiah, where the Messiah is depicted as a righteous ruler (Isaiah 11:4-5). The victory is ultimately over sin and death, as fulfilled in the New Testament through Jesus Christ. humble and riding on a donkey,
The humility of the King is highlighted by His choice to ride on a donkey, an animal associated with peace rather than war. In ancient Near Eastern culture, kings would ride horses during times of war and donkeys during times of peace. This imagery contrasts with the expectations of a conquering hero and points to the nature of the Messiah's kingdom as one of peace and humility. This prophecy is fulfilled in the New Testament when Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey (Matthew 21:1-5), symbolizing His peaceful mission. on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
The specific mention of a "colt, the foal of a donkey" emphasizes the humility and gentleness of the King. A colt is a young donkey, underscoring the peaceful nature of His arrival. This detail is significant in the fulfillment of prophecy, as it is precisely how Jesus entered Jerusalem, marking the beginning of His Passion Week. The use of a colt also signifies the newness of the covenant and the fresh start for God's people through the Messiah. Persons / Places / Events 1. Daughter of Zion / Daughter of JerusalemThese terms refer to the people of Jerusalem and, by extension, the nation of Israel. They are personified as a daughter, indicating a close, familial relationship with God. 2. The KingThis is a prophetic reference to the Messiah, who Christians believe is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The King is described as righteous, victorious, and humble. 3. The Donkey and ColtThe donkey and its colt symbolize humility and peace, contrasting with the war horses typically ridden by conquering kings. Teaching Points The Joy of AnticipationThe call to "rejoice greatly" reminds believers of the joy that comes with the anticipation of Christ's coming. This joy is rooted in the fulfillment of God's promises. The Nature of True KingshipUnlike earthly kings who often rule with power and might, the Messiah's kingship is characterized by righteousness, humility, and peace. Believers are called to emulate these qualities in their own lives. The Fulfillment of ProphecyZechariah 9:9 is a clear example of Old Testament prophecy fulfilled in the New Testament. This fulfillment strengthens faith in the reliability and divine inspiration of Scripture. Humility as a Path to VictoryThe image of the King riding on a donkey teaches that true victory and leadership come through humility and service, not through force or domination. The Call to RejoiceThe command to rejoice is not just for the people of Jerusalem but for all believers who recognize Jesus as King. This joy should be evident in our worship and daily lives. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the image of the King riding on a donkey challenge our understanding of power and leadership? 2. In what ways can we "rejoice greatly" in our daily lives, reflecting the joy of the Daughter of Zion? 3. How does the fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9 in the New Testament strengthen your faith in the reliability of Scripture? 4. What are some practical ways we can demonstrate humility in our interactions with others, following the example of Christ? 5. How can the anticipation of Christ's return influence our actions and attitudes today? Connections to Other Scriptures Matthew 21:1-11This passage describes Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, directly fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. Jesus rides on a donkey, emphasizing His role as the humble King. Isaiah 62:11This verse also speaks of salvation coming to Zion, reinforcing the message of deliverance and the coming of a Savior. Philippians 2:5-8This passage highlights the humility of Christ, who, though being in the form of God, took on the nature of a servant, aligning with the humble image of the King in Zechariah 9:9. People Aram, Javan, Jebusites, Zechariah, ZidonPlaces Ashdod, Ashkelon, Damascus, Ekron, Euphrates River, Gaza, Greece, Hadrach, Hamath, Jerusalem, Philistia, Sidon, Tyre, ZionTopics Afflicted, Aloud, Ass, Behold, Colt, Cry, Daughter, Donkey, Endowed, Exceedingly, Foal, Full, Gentle, Glad, Greatly, Humble, Jerusalem, Joy, Lowly, Mounted, O, Overcome, Rejoice, Riding, Righteous, Salvation, Saved, Seated, She-asses, Shout, Triumph, Triumphant, Upright, Victorious, ZionDictionary of Bible Themes Zechariah 9:9 1090 God, majesty of
1125 God, righteousness
2036 Christ, humility
2051 Christ, majesty of
2069 Christ, pre-eminence
2072 Christ, righteousness
2206 Jesus, the Christ
2230 Messiah, coming of
2312 Christ, as king
2354 Christ, mission
2366 Christ, prophecies concerning
2422 gospel, confirmation
2590 Christ, triumphal entry
4621 colt
4633 donkey
5127 back
5369 kingship, divine
5426 news
5528 shouting
5674 daughters
8264 gentleness
8276 humility
8288 joy, of Israel
9220 day of the LORD Zechariah 9:9-10 2570 Christ, suffering
4209 land, spiritual aspects
6704 peace, divine NT
7241 Jerusalem, significance
7271 Zion, as symbol
9145 Messianic age Zechariah 9:9-13 1443 revelation, OT Library Messiah's Entrance into Jerusalem
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. -- And He shall speak peace unto the heathen. T he narrowness and littleness of the mind of fallen man are sufficiently conspicuous in the idea he forms of magnificence and grandeur. The pageantry and parade of a Roman triumph, or of an eastern monarch, as described in history, exhibit him to us …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1And the Manner of his Entry into Jerusalem, which was the Capital of Judæa...
And the manner of His entry into Jerusalem, which was the capital of Judæa, where also was His royal seat and the temple of God, the prophet Isaiah declares: Say ye to the daughter of Sion, Behold a king corneth unto thee meek and sitting upon an ass, a colt the foal of an ass. [233] (Isa. lxii. 11, Zech. ix. 9) For, sitting. on an ass's colt, so He entered into Jerusalem, the multitudes strewing and putting down for Him their garments. And by the daughter of Sion he means Jerusalem. …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching Caesarea. Strato's Tower.
The Arabian interpreter thinks the first name of this city was Hazor, Joshua 11:1. The Jews, Ekron, Zephaniah 2:4. "R. Abhu saith," (he was of Caesarea,) "Ekron shall be rooted out"; this is Caesarea, the daughter of Edom, which is situated among things profane. She was a goad, sticking in Israel, in the days of the Grecians. But when the kingdom of the Asmonean family prevailed, it overcame her, &c. R. Josi Bar Chaninah saith, What is that that is written, 'And Ekron shall be as a Jebusite?' (Zech …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica History of the Interpretation.
1. AMONG THE JEWS. This History, as to its essential features, might, a priori, be sketched with tolerable certainty. From the nature of the case, we could scarcely expect that the Jews should have adopted views altogether erroneous as to the subject of the prophecy in question; for the Messiah appears in it, not in His humiliation, but in His glory--rich in gifts and blessings, and Pelagian self-delusion will, a priori, return an affirmative answer to the question as to whether one is …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Hosanna!
Assuredly, this honor paid to our Lord was passing strange; a gleam of sunlight in a day of clouds, a glimpse of summer-tide in a long and dreary winter. He that was, as a rule, "despised and rejected of men", was for the moment surrounded with the acclaim of the crowd. All men saluted him that day with their Hosannas, and the whole city was moved. It was a gala day for the disciples, and a sort of coronation day for their Lord. Why was the scene permitted? What was its meaning? The marvel is, that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891 And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah
"And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall come forth unto Me (one) [Pg 480] to be Ruler in Israel; and His goings forth are the times of old, the days of eternity." The close connection of this verse with what immediately precedes (Caspari is wrong in considering iv. 9-14 as an episode) is evident, not only from the [Hebrew: v] copulative, and from the analogy of the near relation of the announcement of salvation to the prophecy of disaster …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament The Christian State
Scripture references: Matthew 22:17-22; 17:24-27; Acts 23:5; John 6:15; Matthew 4:8-10; John 18:36-38; Mark 14; 61,62; John 18:33; 19:19; Isaiah 9:6,7; 60:3; Zechariah 9:10; Daniel 7:14; Matthew 26:64; 26:53,54; 16:16,17; 25:31,32. CHRIST AND THE STATE The Relation of Christ to the State.--He was an intense patriot. He loved His country. The names of His great countrymen, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua and David, were ever on His lips. He offered Himself as the national Messiah (Matthew 21:1-17), …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.
(from Bethany to Jerusalem and Back, Sunday, April 2, a.d. 30.) ^A Matt. XXI. 1-12, 14-17; ^B Mark XI. 1-11; ^C Luke XIX. 29-44; ^D John XII. 12-19. ^c 29 And ^d 12 On the morrow [after the feast in the house of Simon the leper] ^c it came to pass, when he he drew nigh unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, ^a 1 And when they came nigh unto Jerusalem, and came unto Bethphage unto { ^b at} ^a the mount of Olives [The name, Bethphage, is said to mean house of figs, but the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel The First Day in Passion-Week - Palm-Sunday - the Royal Entry into Jerusalem
At length the time of the end had come. Jesus was about to make Entry into Jerusalem as King: King of the Jews, as Heir of David's royal line, with all of symbolic, typic, and prophetic import attaching to it. Yet not as Israel after the flesh expected its Messiah was the Son of David to make triumphal entrance, but as deeply and significantly expressive of His Mission and Work, and as of old the rapt seer had beheld afar off the outlined picture of the Messiah-King: not in the proud triumph of war-conquests, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Formation of the Old Testament Canon
[Sidenote: Israel's literature at the beginning of the fourth century before Christ] Could we have studied the scriptures of the Israelitish race about 400 B.C., we should have classified them under four great divisions: (1) The prophetic writings, represented by the combined early Judean, Ephraimite, and late prophetic or Deuteronomic narratives, and their continuation in Samuel and Kings, together with the earlier and exilic prophecies; (2) the legal, represented by the majority of the Old Testament …
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. )
Ver. 20. "And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted vineyards."--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain, too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By this remark, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6.
Several interpreters, Paulus especially, have asserted that the interpretation of Micah which is here given, was that of the Sanhedrim only, and not of the Evangelist, who merely recorded what happened and was said. But this assertion is at once refuted when we consider the object which Matthew has in view in his entire representation of the early life of Jesus. His object in recording the early life of Jesus is not like that of Luke, viz., to communicate historical information to his readers. …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Fifthly, as this Revelation, to the Judgment of Right and Sober Reason,
appears of itself highly credible and probable, and abundantly recommends itself in its native simplicity, merely by its own intrinsic goodness and excellency, to the practice of the most rational and considering men, who are desirous in all their actions to have satisfaction and comfort and good hope within themselves, from the conscience of what they do: So it is moreover positively and directly proved to be actually and immediately sent to us from God, by the many infallible signs and miracles …
Samuel Clarke—A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God The Gospel Feast
"When Jesus then lifted up His eyes, and saw a great company come unto Him, He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?"--John vi. 5. After these words the Evangelist adds, "And this He said to prove him, for He Himself knew what He would do." Thus, you see, our Lord had secret meanings when He spoke, and did not bring forth openly all His divine sense at once. He knew what He was about to do from the first, but He wished to lead forward His disciples, and to arrest and …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII The Gospel of the Kingdom.
"This is He whom Seers in old time Chanted of with one accord; Whom the voices of the Prophets Promised in their faithful word." We have seen that, in the providence of God, John the Baptist was sent to proclaim to the world that "The Kingdom of Heaven" was at hand, and to point out the King. And as soon as the Herald had raised the expectation of men by the proclamation of the coming Kingdom, our Lord began His public ministry, the great object of which was the founding of His Kingdom for the salvation …
Edward Burbidge—The Kingdom of Heaven; What is it? Zechariah
CHAPTERS I-VIII Two months after Haggai had delivered his first address to the people in 520 B.C., and a little over a month after the building of the temple had begun (Hag. i. 15), Zechariah appeared with another message of encouragement. How much it was needed we see from the popular despondency reflected in Hag. ii. 3, Jerusalem is still disconsolate (Zech. i. 17), there has been fasting and mourning, vii. 5, the city is without walls, ii. 5, the population scanty, ii. 4, and most of the people …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Zechariah 9:9 NIVZechariah 9:9 NLTZechariah 9:9 ESVZechariah 9:9 NASBZechariah 9:9 KJV
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