Matthew 21 Bible study: Your King comes to you

"When they came near to Jerusalem and came to Bethsphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples" (21:1), saying, "Go into the village that is opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me" (21:2), and "If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and immediately he will send them" (21:3). Then Matthew stops to say, "All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”" (21:4-5) (tap humble, King). The words stand beside Zechariah 9:9, and the promise pair on the map sets the two side by side. Here is what almost everyone misses: in the WEB, all this and fulfilled come together in three verses of Matthew. The first is "Now all this has happened that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet" (1:22); this is the second; and the third is in Jesus's own words when he is seized, "But all this has happened that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled" (26:56). "The disciples went and did just as Jesus commanded them, and brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them; and he sat on them" (21:6-7). "A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road" (21:8), and "The multitudes who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”" (21:9). Only Matthew tells this: "When he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”" (21:10), and "The multitudes said, “This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”" (21:11) (tap prophet).

Zechariah 9:9→leads toMatthew 21:4-5

Zechariah has, "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." (Zechariah 9:9). When they came near to Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1), and Jesus had sent two disciples for a donkey and a colt (Matthew 21:2), Matthew says, "All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”" (Matthew 21:4-5). Then the disciples "brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them; and he sat on them" (Matthew 21:7). Matthew names no prophet, and the WEB words the two differently: among other differences, the first words Matthew gives, Tell the daughter of Zion, are not Zechariah's Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion!, and Matthew has humble where Zechariah has lowly.

μεταμέλλομαιmetamellomaisay met-am-EL-lom-ahee

Strong's: "to care afterwards, i.e. regret". Thayer: "to repent oneself", and he lists both verses. "He answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind, and went" (21:29): changed his mind is this one verb. Three verses later Jesus says, "When you saw it, you didn’t even repent afterward, that you might believe him" (21:32), and the WEB's repent there is the same verb. Both verses also have afterward, and in the Greek it is the same word. It is not the verb of John's "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!" (3:2), which is metanoeo, studied in Favor's Mark 1 and Matthew 3. The New Testament has this verb six times, in five verses (counted in RP2018), and twice in this chapter.