What Does Matthew 21:9 Mean?
The crowds that went before him, and those that followed, cried out, saying, Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the nature of the LORD. Hosanna in the highest!
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
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.THE KEY
The crowd’s “Hosanna” is both welcome and a live plea for deliverance, spoken to one coming in the LORD’s nature.
THE MEANING
You can welcome the one who comes bearing the LORD’s nature while still crying out for deliverance. Praise and need rise together, and the cry reaches the highest without concealing the need within it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your need must be resolved before praise can rise: the plea for deliverance is already inside the welcome.
THE ROOT
ὀνόματι
onomati
GROWS FROM
ὀνομα-
onoma-: name, designation; here, the name carries the nature or character of the one named.
“in the nature of” in this verse is onomati. The KJV’s “in the name” holds more than a title: the Greek word for name opens onto the character represented by that name. The welcome is directed to one whose coming embodies the LORD’s nature.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: to name, call by name
ὀνομάζω
This verb shares the name-stem and links naming with the identity being named.
onomasía: naming, designation
ὀνομασία
This noun shares the same stem and shows how a name identifies the nature associated with it.
הוֹשִׁיעָה נָּא
hoshiʿah naʾ
GROWS FROM
ישע
yashaʿ: deliver, bring out of constriction into spaciousness.
Hosanna remains Hosanna, while its Hebrew cry carries the plea “deliver, please.” Its root ties the shout to deliverance, so the acclaim does not silence need; it gives need a voice.
ALSO GROWS
yāshaʿ: to deliver, bring out
יָשַׁע
This verb carries the root’s movement from constriction toward spaciousness.
yeshuʿah: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the deliverance the crowd’s plea seeks.
דָּוִד
Dāwid
GROWS FROM
דוד
dod: beloved; the name carries belovedness.
“Son of David” invokes a royal line through a name that carries belovedness. The welcome thus joins the plea for deliverance to a lineage marked by the beloved.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: beloved; also a term for a close kinsman
דּוֹד
This word shares the consonants of David’s name and carries the sense of belovedness.
dōdîm: loves, endearments
דּוֹדִים
This plural shares the same consonantal family and extends its association with love.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance becomes a public cry that joins request, welcome, and praise.
O LORD, I beg you, deliver now. O LORD, I beg you, make now a way through.They took palm fronds and went out to meet him, and cried out, Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the nature of the LORD, the king of Israel.And they cry out with a loud voice, saying, Deliverance to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!THE THREAD
They took palm fronds and went out to meet him, and cried out, Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the nature of the LORD, the king of Israel.John uses the same Greek name-word ὄνομα (onoma, “name”) in the same arrival cry. In both verses, “in the name of the Lord” opens welcome onto the nature carried by the one who comes, while Hosanna keeps the plea for deliverance inside the praise.
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