“Don’t be afraid, daughter of Zion. Behold, your King comes, sitting on a donkey’s colt.”
Parallel Translations
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“Don’t be afraid, daughter of Zion. Behold, your King comes, sitting on a donkey’s colt.”
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feare not doughter of Sion beholde thy kynge cometh sittinge on an asses coolte.
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Feare not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King commeth sitting on an asses colte.
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to John 12:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
- Isaiah 62:11 Behold, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your salvation comes! Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him!’ ”
- Zephaniah 3:16-17 In that day, it will be said to Jerusalem, “Don’t be afraid, Zion. Don’t let your hands be weak.” Yahweh, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.
- Isaiah 35:4-5 Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong! Don’t be afraid! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
- 2 Samuel 16:2 The king said to Ziba, “What do you mean by these?” Ziba said, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine, that those who are faint in the wilderness may drink.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (6 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 15 Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King…
15 Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt.
Ver. 15. Sitting upon an ass] Not upon a stately palfrey, as an earthly potentate; but upon a silly ass, without pomp, to comfort the poorest, and to teach us humility, tolerance, patience. An ass is a beast profitable (whence he hath his name in the original), but born to bear burdens. {a} Oneramus asinum, saith Bernard, et non curat, quia asinus est. But what notorious asses are those superstitious Papists, that show the ass’s tail in Genoa in Italy, whereon our Saviour rode, for a relic, and give it divine worship. Are not these given up to the very efficacy of error?
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{a} ονος, παρα το ονηααθαι. Hinc Heradidae Sophistae, πσυου εγκωηρον, ονου dixit εγκωμιον.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Fear not, daughter of Zion,.... But rejoice; see Zac…
Fear not, daughter of Zion,.... But rejoice; see Zac 9:9 and See Gill on Mat 21:5.
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John 12:16
joh 12:16
joh 12:16
joh 12:16These things understood not his disciples at the first,.... Or "at that time", as the Syriac and Persic versions render it; or "on that day", as the Ethiopic version; they did not then know the sense of that prophecy, nor that the things which were now doing were a fulfilling of it:
but when Jesus was glorified; was raised front the dead, and ascended to heaven, and was set down at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honour; and when having received the promise of the Father, the Holy Ghost, and his gifts, he poured them forth in a very plenteous and extraordinary manner upon them; whereby their minds were greatly illuminated, and they had a very distinct knowledge of the Scriptures of the Old Testament; and saw clearly how they severally had their accomplishment in Christ:
then remembered they that these things were written of him; in the prophecies of the Old Testament;
and that they had done these things unto him; both the disciples and the multitude, or that these things were done to him; such as bringing the ass to him, laying their clothes on it, and setting him upon it, attending him with shoutings and hosannas to the city of Jerusalem, &c.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Fear not - For his meekness forbids fear, as…
Fear not - For his meekness forbids fear, as well as the end of his coming. Zech. ix, 9.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15. Fear not, &c. The quotation is freely made;…
15. Fear not, &c. The quotation is freely made; ‘fear not’ is substituted for ‘rejoice greatly,’ and the whole is abbreviated, Zec_9:9. In adding ‘thy’ to ‘king’ and in writing ‘an ass’s colt’ the Evangelist seems to be translating direct from the Hebrew. The best editions of the LXX. omit ‘thy’ and all have ‘a young colt’ for the words here rendered ‘an ass’s colt.’ Comp. Joh_1:29, Joh_6:45, Joh_19:37. If the writer of this Gospel knew the O.T. in the original Hebrew he almost certainly was a Jew.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) Fear not, daughter of Sion.—The quotation is made…
(15) Fear not, daughter of Sion.—The quotation is made freely, and in an abbreviated form. (Comp. the fuller form in Mat_21:5, and Note upon it there.) It is in the two Hebrew Gospels only that the connection of the fact with the prophecy is mentioned.
Sitting on an ass’s colt.—The Greek (LXX.) has “a young ass.” St. John’s translation is nearer to the Hebrew. (Comp. Introduction, p. 374).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain John, as well as Matthew, sees here a symbolical…
John, as well as Matthew, sees here a symbolical fulfillment of what had been declared by one of the latest of the prophets, as the peculiarity of the Messiah: (Zec_9:9) Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass"s colt. This oracle is admitted by commentators of opposite schools to refer to the Messiah. There was no need, in order to fulfill the spirit of the whole passage, that the King should come to his own literally upon the back of a beast of burden. The prophecy does, however, suggest the modesty, the absence of all pomp or display of worldly wealth and power; nay, the humiliation on the part of the true King. Both Matthew and John omit the characteristics of "righteous and saved,i.e. "delivered" from the hands of his cruel enemies. The suffering Servant of God of the great oracle of Isaiah 53. was in the mind of the Prophet Zechariah, and he adds this feature to the triumphant coming of the true Prince of Peace, that he would "cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem," i.e. so act that even the national pride and power and military prowess should come to an end; "Speak peace to the nations; rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth." As John and Matthew both see the symbolical fulfillment of the prophecy, they doubtless would have us bear in mind the whole passage. John transforms the "Rejoice greatly, shout," etc., of the prophet into Fear not." He seems to take it at one stage only of fulfillment, when anxiety might momentarily be put to rest. The Fear not" is a lower form of "great rejoicing." It is something for men to dismiss their doubts and hush their unrest, even when they cannot burst into song. Hengstenberg and Godet urge that the "meekness and lowliness" to which the prophet referred, and which Matthew cited from him, was imaged in the lowly beast on which never man sat. But it must not be forgotten that the ass was used by distinguished personages. (Jud_1:5:9, 10 10:4 2Sa_17:23 2Sa_19:26) And all that was really meant by it was the choice of a creature associated rather with daily life than with military display. Meyer and Moulton urge that it was a chosen symbol of peace. (kayhmenov is substituted for the epibebhkw of the LXX and Mat_21:5) Contrary to Keim"s animadversion, our Lord and his disciples adopted here the idea of a Jewish Messiah, stripping it of its worldly characteristics. It should be observed that, while John"s narrative is in harmony with the synoptists, he greatly abbreviates it.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.