Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Cut down branches from the trees - Carrying palm and other branches was emblematical of victory and success. See 1 Maccabees 13:51; 2 Maccabees 10:7; and Revelation 7:9.
The rabbins acknowledge that the prophecy in Zechariah refers to the Messiah; so Rab. Tancum, and Yalcut Rubeni has a strange story about the ass. "This ass is the colt of that ass which was created in the twilight of the sixth day. This is the ass which Abraham found when he went to sacrifice his son. This is the ass on which Moses rode when he went to Egypt; and this is the ass on which the Messiah shall ride." Some of the Jews seem to think that the zebra is intended; for according to Bab. Sanhedr. fol. 98, when Shapoor, king of Persia, said to Rabbi Samuel: "You say your Messiah will come upon an ass; I will send him a noble horse." To which the rabbi replied, "You have not a horse with a hundred spots (query, streaks) like his ass." See Lightfoot and Schoettgen.
Other Adam Clarke entries containing Matthew 21:8:
Psalms 118:27
Mark 11:1
Luke 19:29-38
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