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.
Ver. 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion] Draw all thy waters with joy out of this well spring of salvation. Lo, here is the sum of all the good news in the world; and that which should make the saints everlastingly merry, even to shouting and singing in the height of Zion, that their king cometh, Jeremiah 31:12. This should swallow up all discontents, and make them sing, "Hosanna in the highest; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."
Behold, thy King cometh] Not Zerubbabel, or Judas Maccabeus, as some Jews interpret it; nor yet Alexander the Great (as some others); but a greater than he, even Messiah the prince, as Christ is styled, Daniel 9:25, who shall cut off the chariot, &c., as it followeth in the next verse, yea, all the four chariots or monarchies, as some expound Zechariah 6:1,15 : how much more Tyre, Gaza, Ekron, Damascus, &c., of which he spake before in this chapter.
Unto thee] i.e. Merely for thy behoof and benefit, and not for his own. Other kings are much for their own profit, pleasures, pomp, &c.; Christ emptied himself of all his excellencies that we might be filled with his fulness.
He is just and having salvation] That he may justify thee by his righteousness, and save thee by his merit and Spirit. The Vulgate rendereth it, Just and a Saviour; so doth the Chaldee. Salvation properly denotes the negative part of man's happiness, freedom from all evils and enemies; but it is usually taken for the positive part also, viz. fruition of all good; because it is easier to tell from what than unto what we are saved by Jehovah our righteousness.
Lowly] Or poor, afflicted, abject. See them set together, Zep 3:12 Philippians 4:12. I have learned to want and to be abased. Poverty rendereth a man contemptible and ridiculous. Pauper ubique iacet, men go over the hedge where it is lowest; the poor are trampled upon, and despised, as Luke 16:30. This thy son, he scorned to call him brother, because he was poor. Now Christ became poor to make us rich, 2 Corinthians 8:9; a worm and no man (nullificamen populi, as Tertullian phraseth it), that we might be advanced to glory and honour and immortality, Romans 2:7. Neither was he more low and mean in his estate than lowly and meek in mind; as far from pride and stateliness as his state was from pomp and magnificence.
Riding upon an ass] A poor silly beast, used by the meaner sort of people.
Yea, upon a colt the foal of an ass] Heb. Asses, because the colt whereon Christ rode ran after two asses coupled together in one yoke, whereof one was his dam, Matthew 21:5. See Trapp on "Matthew 21:1,46 ; Mat 5:1-48 " These asses used to the yoke Hesiod calleth ταλαιπωρους, wretched, or enduring great toil and labour. That Christ should ride upon the foal of such a hard labouring ass, a young wild colt, not yet ready tamed and trained to the saddle, as it shows his humility, so also his power over the creature (Clarescente gloria inter humilem simplicitatem), and his peaceableness too, as Kimchi thinks from that in the next verse, that the Israelites under Christ's government should have no need of horses and chariots. All this description of Christ's person and kingdom we know was punctually fulfilled in our Saviour, according to Mat 21:4-11 Mar 11:7-10 Luk 19:35-38 John 12:12,16, four sufficient witnesses. The old Rabbis, and with them R. Solomon (though a sworn enemy to Christians), take the text of the promised Messiah's solemn entrance into Jerusalem: of Jesus, the crucified son of Mary, they will not yield, because they stumble at his poverty and expect pomp. But if they had consulted their own prophets, they would have found that Messiah was foretold as despicable, Isaiah 53:2; poor, as here; crucified, Dan 9:26 Numbers 22:9; among malefactors, Isaiah 53:9; nailed, Psalms 22:16; pierced, Zechariah 12:10; mocked, Psalms 69:7. And that their very rejection of him for his meanness and meekness proveth him to be Christ, Psa 118:22 Acts 4:11. It is reported of Agesilaus, that, coming to help the King of Egypt in his distress, he was despised by the Egyptians because of the plainness of his person and the homeliness of his attire, for they thought that they should see the King of Sparta such a one as the King of Persia was bravely clothed and pompously attended. Likewise the Jews expect a Christ like to one of the mighty monarchs of the earth; and they are strongly possessed with the fond conceit of an earthly kingdom. Hence, when they saw Mahomet arising in such power, they were straight ready to cry him up for their Messiah. "The rich hath many friends," saith Solomon but "the poor is hated," or slighted, "even of his own neighbour," Proverbs 14:20. Christ came to his own; but his own received him not. When it was sometime disputed among the Romans in the council, using to deify great men, whether Christ, having done many wonderful works, should be received into the number of the gods? the historian saith, that they would not therefore receive him, because he preached poverty and made choice of poor men to follow him, whom the world careth not for.