Matthew 21:5

21:5 “Tell the people of Zion, ¹ 

‘Look, your king is coming to you,

unassuming and seated on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” ² 

Matthew 21:7

21:7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks ³  on them, and he sat on them.

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¹ tn Grk “Tell the daughter of Zion” (the phrase “daughter of Zion” is an idiom for the inhabitants of Jerusalem: “people of Zion”). The idiom “daughter of Zion” has been translated as “people of Zion” because the original idiom, while firmly embedded in the Christian tradition, is not understandable to most modern English readers.

² tn Grk “the foal of an animal under the yoke,” i.e., a hard-working animal. This is a quotation from Zech 9:9.

³ tn Grk “garments”; but this refers in context to their outer cloaks. The action is like 2 Kgs 9:13.