Matthew 21:15-17 – those yelling Hosanna to the Son of David!

“15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant, 16 and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus *said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ’OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABES THOU HAST PREPARED PRAISE FOR THYSELF’?” 17 And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and lodged there.” (Mt 21:15-17 NAS)

Earlier when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem people had welcomed Jesus as the “son of David” and praised him as a king entering the city on a donkey. No word of Jesus were then written down by the gospel writers. But when Jesus had thrown-out the moneymakers from the temple, he acknowledged the children’s praise and said to the leaders of the temple that it was out of the mouth of babes and sucklings that some ordained strength because of their enemies, so that those enemies and the avengers could be stilled.

“From the mouth of infants and nursing babes Thou hast established strength, Because of Thine adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.” (Ps 8:2 NAS)

The religious leaders should have known the Psalm with those words.

These spiritual leaders were apparently a deputation from the Sanhedrin, the High Council. They were very indignant at what had happened here. First the presence of the lame and the blind in the Temple was not permitted and secondly Jesus healing them there in the House of God seemed not appropriate. As appears from the crying out and the Greek word used (pais = lad, youth), the singing of ‘Hosanna’ was not unknown to the children. The words used in the Greek manuscript are masculine, meaning boys or lads as in Matthew 2:16, and not the general term children as in Matthew 11:16. It would naturally be boys rather than girls, for comparatively few even of grown women went to the temple amid the crowds. Those youngsters were taught the Hosanna song as early as possible during the Feast of Tabernacles, to wave their palm branches whenever they heard the word ‘hosanna’. (SB, I, 853). They repeated the jubilant call the people had used on the previous day (v. 9).

Those kids and the disciples readily understood it to mean the Messiah; now observing the authority with which he cleansed the temple and healed the blind and the lame, they recalled that cry and were loudly repeating it, even in the temple.
The older people who had said the same on the Mount of Olives and in the streets of the city might have shrunk from making the bold proclamation in this most public place and in the very face of their religious rulers. Children are in such a case more ardent and more fearless.

They leaders of the temple were sore displeased, or, moved with indignation, (same word as in Mt 20:24). They ought to have been led to earnest inquiry whether he who thus asserted authority and wrought miracles and allowed himself to be hailed as the Son of David was indeed the Messiah. They were very well aware of the ancient scrolls telling about a messenger who would come and who would prepare the way before Jehovah of hosts. That sent one from God being like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap, a purifier of silver, who would purify the sons of Levi, and the one refining them as gold and silver.

“1  “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts. 2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 “And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness. 4 “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD, as in the days of old and as in former years.” (Mal 3:1-4 NAS)

They could see that Jesus had made a purification of the temple, though they did not want to know that Jesus would be a sent one from God, a prophet, and were indignant at the apparent claim. He was altogether different from their notion of the Messiah. The man of flesh and blood they saw was a worker son who came from an obscure village in distant Galilee (John 7:41 f., 52), who had not asked the recognition of the Sanhedrin, but seemed to be relying on mere popular recognition, and for them that crowd or mob knew nothing of the Torah (or Scriptures) {John 7:49 }.

Most people, even the disciples of Jesus at that time, expected the Messiah to be a revolutionist and civil ruler, taking care that the People of Israel would not be any more under Roman rules. Therefore the claim Jesus to be the Messiah and its popular support might was considered a dangerous thing. It would provoke the Romans to crush out the “nation,” and deprive these Jewish officials of their “place,” as some of them had intimated not long before. {John 11:47 f. } It was for that reason also that Jesus no longer had moved about publicly among the people of Judea, because he was aware of the counsel to put him to death. He had withdrawn to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples, but now he knew that the time had come and that he was to go for the Passover to Jerusalem.

It disturbed the leaders that Jesus did not do anything to “stop a thing so improper as to call him Son of David”. So during the triumphal procession, {Luke 19:39 } “some of the Pharisees from the multitude” openly called on him to rebuke his disciples for language implying that he was the Messiah, but he refused. (Comp. our previous writing on Matthew 21:9)

It is idle for critics to suppose this a mere inaccurate report of that former case, for the place is different, the persons making the outcry are here children, and the Saviour’s reply is also entirely different, and adapted to the testimony of children. The Scribes complaining may have been different, or may have included some ‘of the same persons, now still further outraged by the renewed hosannas.

The one who spoke about the Son of man being “Lord or Master of the sabbath“, now did not mind being called “son of David”. He had made hammock in the temple and previously also had said that they could see something greater than the temple being there.  {Matthew 12:6-8}

For “out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast established strength.’ the Septuagint has ‘thou hast prepared praise’; in several other passages (Toy) it has rendered the word for ‘strength’ by ‘praise.’ Matthew follows the Septuagint, as he so often does where it expresses the Heb. sufficiently for his purpose. (Comp. on #Mt 3:3 12:14) The Greek word means ‘prepared’ or ‘completely prepared,’ and so may be rendered ‘perfected.’

Suckling was sometimes continued among the Jews till the child was three years’ old (#/APC 2Macc 7:27), and such a custom is still reported by some travellers in the East. What the Psalmist declared true of sucking babes was also and still more true of these boys crying hosanna. Toy says that the meaning in which the words are here used is

“substantially the same as that of the Psalmist — God had shown these children a truth that the learned men did not see, and had thereby made them instruments of praise and strength.”

We should remember that it is God Who calls people and Who gives insight of His Works.

Jesus his wise answer, while not provoking, yet failed to restrain, the purpose excited by the triumphal entry and his cleansing the temple, viz., to destroy him if possible; the popular recognition and enthusiasm made them fear him all the more, for they accounted him a dangerous rival to their own position as religious instructors and rulers. {Mr 11:18 Lu 19:47 f }

The youngsters used a word of joyful acclamation in Hebrew, (ωσαννα; Heb. נא הושׁע, “Save, we pray;” σωσον δη, as Theophylact correctly interprets it), signifying “save now” also used as “welcome”. The Psalm from which it was taken, the 118th, was one with which they were familiar from being accustomed to recite the 25th and 26th verses at the Feast of Tabernacles. On that occasion the Great Hallelu, consisting of (Ps 118 Ps 119), was chanted by one of the priests, and at certain intervals the multitudes joined in the responses, waving their branches of willow and palm, and shouting as they waved them, Hallelujah, or Hosanna, or “O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.” {Ps 118:25 } This was done at the recitation of the first and last verses of; {Ps 118 } but according to the school of Hillel, at the words “Save now, we beseech thee” (vera. 25). The school of Shammai, on the contrary, say it was at the words “Send now prosperity” of the same verse.

Rabboni Gamaliel and R. Joshua were observed by R. Akkub to wave their branches only at the words

“Save now, we beseech thee” (Mishna, Succi, iii. 9).

On each of the seven days during which the feast lasted the people thronged in the court of the Temple, and went in procession about the altar, setting their boughs bending towards it; the trumpets sounding as they shouted Hosanna. But on the seventh day they marched seven times round the altar, shouting meanwhile the great Hosanna to the sound of the trumpets of the Levites (Lightfoot, Temple Service, xvi. 2).

The very children who could wave the palm branches were expected to take part in the solemnity Mishna, Succi, iii. 15; {#Mt 21:15 } From the custom of waving the boughs of myrtle and willow during the service the name Hosanna was ultimately transferred to the boughs themselves, so that according to Elias Levita (Tishbe, s. v.),

“the bundlers of the willows of the brook which they carry at the Feast of Tabernacles are called Hosannas.”

The term is frequently applied by Jewish writers to denote the Feast of Tabernacles, the seventh day of the feast being distinguished as the great Hosanna (Buxtorf, Lex. Talmai. s. v. ישׂע). It was not uncommon for the Jews in later times to employ the observances of this feast, which was preeminently a feast of gladness, to express their feelings on other occasions of rejoicing, {#/RAPC 1Ma 13:51 2Ma 10:6,7 } and it is not, therefore, matter of surprise that they should have done so under the circumstances recorded in the Gospels.

In the N.T. the sense Hosanna appears to be ‘bestow blessing.’

“Bestow blessing on the Son of David: bestow blessing [O thou who art] in the highest.” (Mt 21:9 Mr 11:9,10 Joh 12:13)

Concerning Jesus to be called the “son of David” we can find this in

Mt 1:1  {1 } The book of the {2 } generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. {1) Or The genealogy of Jesus Christ 2) Or birth; as in verse 18 }

Mt 12:23 And all the multitudes were amazed, and said, Can this be the son of David?

Mt 15:22 And behold, a Canaanitish woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a demon.

Mt 21:9 And the multitudes that went before him, 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.

Mr 10:48 And many rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried out the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me.

Mr 12:35  And Jesus answered and said, as he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that the Christ is the son of David?

Joh 7:42 {1 } Hath not the scripture said that the Christ cometh of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was? {1) 2 Sa 7:12 ff; Mic 5:2 }

Also the scholar Saul (apostle Paul) in later years reminds the members of the group The Way

“concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,” (Ro 1:3 NAS)

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel,” (2Ti 2:8 NAS)

Also the youngest disciple recognised his master teacher as the Kristos or Christ and as the son of David.

“and one of the elders *said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.”” (Re 5:5 NAS)

The people cried Hosanna as Jesus entered in triumph into Jerusalem and now again in the temple; that is, they thus invoked once more the blessings of heaven on him as the Messiah, (This was also a customary acclamation at the joyful feast of tabernacles, in which the Jews repeated # Ps 118:25,26.)

Having brought praise to God and having Jesus being honoured as the son of David, confirming him to be that promised  Messiah, Jesus went back to Bethany (Matthew 21:17), a village about 2 miles (3.2 km) from Jerusalem on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. Perhaps Jesus lodged at the home of Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha, with whom he had close association (Luke 10:38–42; John 11:1–44; 12:1–3).

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Preceding

Matthew 9:27-31 – What others are saying about the blind men recognising the son of David

Matthew 9:32-34 – How others look at the blind, speechless and demoniac being healed

Matthew 9:35-38 – Looking at Jesus our shepherd

Matthew 12:22-30 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: the Charge of Demonism

Matthew 20:29-34 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Two Blind Men Pitied and Healed

Matthew 12:1-8 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Something Greater than the Temple

Matthew 21:1-3 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Sent Ahead for a Donkey

Matthew 21:4-5 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Your King Is Coming upon a Donkey

Matthew 21:6-9 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Blessed the One Coming in God’s Name!

Matthew 21:10-11 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Who Is This?

Matthew 21:12-14 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Temple Cleansed

Matthew 21:12-14 – From a den of thieves to a house of prayer

Matthew 21:15-17 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Out of the Mouth of Babes

Multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David

Matthew 21:10-11 Who Is This? – a Question still posed today #1

Matthew 21:10-11 Who Is This? – a Question still posed today #2

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Additional reading

1. Entrance of a king to question our position #1 Coming in the Name of the Lord
2. Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be
3. Marriage of Jesus 2 Standard writings about Jesus
4. Days of Nisan, Pesach, Pasach, Pascha and Easter
5. Sukkoth, Gog, Magog, Armageddon, a covenant and Jerusalem
6. Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God
7. Lord in place of the divine name
8. Lord and owner
9. Concerning Christ #1 A god or the God, a son of man and son of God
10. Servant of his Father
11. Memorizing wonderfully 31 Son of David and God’s Kingdom
12. Today’s thought “… with all your heart” (May 09)

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Further reading

1. June 5, 2018 -Jesus, the Sabbath Breaker? John 5:1-18Lord of the Sabbath
2. Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1 – 14; Mark 2:23 – 3:6; Luke 6:1 – 11)
3. In Jesus’ Words: Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-3:6)
4. Lord of the Sabbath, a prayer of confession based on Mark 2
5. A telling of Matthew 21
6. Jesus’ Triumphant Entry – Palm Sunday Exegetical Study Part 1
7. Hashtag #PalmSunday #StunnedSilence
8. Palm Sunday
9. Palm Sunday as it really happened (not as it’s talked about in church)
10. The Coming King
11. Palm Sunday
12. Palm Sunday – Hosanna!
13. hosanna
14. Hosanna to Hallelujah
15. “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in God’s name! Yes! The King of Israel!” ~The Jerusalem crowds
16. Music: Hosanna by Apostle Peter
17. Hosanna Lyrics by Amanda Malela
18. Hosanna! Save Us!
19. Hosanna… Save us, we prayHosanna shouting, “B lessed (celebrated, praised) is the K ing who comes in the name of the Lord ! Peace in heaven and glory (majesty, splendor) in the highest [heaven]!”Hosanna I’ve always wondered why Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey instead of a horse when He entered Jerusalem as a King.
20. Oil and Palm Branches
21. Hosanna – Palm Sunday Devotional
22. Palm Sunday: Sanctification and Protection
23. If The Jesus Fits
24. Living Christ, Our Victory
25. Hey Jesus!
26. 3. Titles of Jesus: The Son of David and the Messiah
27. Luke 20:41-44. Son of David
28. Semana 2019
29. From Cheers to Jeers
30. Cheering to Jeering to Cheering Psalm 118
31. A Promised Son
32. Jesus: Son of David, or Son of God?
33. Considering the Names of Jesus: Son of David
34. Son of David 1
35. Son of David 2
36. Son of David. ⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ?
37. How Is the Messiah David’s Son?
38. Sons of David
39. Son of David, Heal Me
40. Who is Christ?
41. Who is Jesus to you?