Add parallel Print Page Options

[a](A)The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road. (B)The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying:

“Hosanna[b] to the Son of David;
    blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest.”

10 And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken[c] and asked, “Who is this?”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 21:8 Spread…on the road: cf. 2 Kgs 9:13. There is a similarity between the cutting and strewing of the branches and the festivities of Tabernacles (Lv 23:39–40); see also 2 Mc 10:5–8 where the celebration of the rededication of the temple is compared to that of Tabernacles.
  2. 21:9 Hosanna: the Hebrew means “(O Lord) grant salvation”; see Ps 118:25, but that invocation had become an acclamation of jubilation and welcome. Blessed is he…in the name of the Lord: see Ps 118:26 and the note on Jn 12:13. In the highest: probably only an intensification of the acclamation, although Hosanna in the highest could be taken as a prayer, “May God save (him).”
  3. 21:10 Was shaken: in the gospels this verb is peculiar to Matthew where it is used also of the earthquake at the time of the crucifixion (Mt 27:51) and of the terror of the guards of Jesus’ tomb at the appearance of the angel (Mt 28:4). For Matthew’s use of the cognate noun, see note on Mt 8:24.