Bible Strands

Matthew 21:9

The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed were shouting: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!”

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — The crowds moving ahead of and behind Jesus shout these phrases during His approach to Jerusalem. The moment occurs immediately after the crowd spreads cloaks and branches on the road and before the city reacts to His arrival.

The words — ὄχλοι (ochloi) identifies the masses, while προάγοντες (proagontes) specifies the subset going ahead of Him. These terms ground the scene in a physical, forward-moving procession rather than a stationary assembly.

The thread — John 12:13 records the identical procession and shouts, while Luke 2:14 and Psalms 118:24 supply the liturgical vocabulary for the “highest” and “day” motifs. The phrasing traces a consistent prophetic and liturgical thread through the Gospels and the Psalter.

Why it lands — The text declares Jesus as the Davidic king arriving under explicit divine authority. A reader must confront the public, kingly claim while noting the immediate context of Jerusalem’s unsettled question about His identity.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.

Cross-references

People named

David