Matthew 21:1-3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem Namely, on the first day of the week, five days before his death, for the passover was kept on the fourteenth day of the month, and this was the tenth; on which day the law appointed that the paschal-lamb should be taken up, Exodus 12:3, and set apart for that service: on that day therefore Christ our passover, who was to be sacrificed for us, was publicly shown. So that this was the prologue to his passion. And were come to Bethphage Mark says, and Bethany. Then sent Jesus two disciples, saying, Go into the village over against you This, as the Arabian geographer informs us, was a little village two miles distant from the mount of Olives, toward the south. And straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her As Mark and Luke say that the colt was tied, the words of Matthew contain an ellipsis, which must be supplied thus, and a colt bound with her. It must be observed, also, that the other evangelists make mention only of the colt, because our Lord sat on him only. See note on Matthew 21:7. Here we have “a wonderful instance of Christ's prescience in very minute matters. He says, 1, You shall find a colt: 2, On which no man ever sat: 3, Bound with his mother: 4, In a place where two ways meet, Mark 11:4: 5, As you enter into the village: 6, The owners of which shall at first seem unwilling that you should unbind him: 7, But when they hear the Lord hath need of him, they will let him go.” Whitby.