daughter of Zion

“Navajo distinguishes between a man’s son or daughter and a woman’s son or daughter by the use of different terms for each. So the gender of Zion had to be determined. The problem was settled when a friend called to our attention a number of verses in the Old Testament where Zion is referred to as “she” or “her”, e.g. Ps. 87:5, 48:12, Is. 4:5, 66:8. The term for a woman’s daughter is biché’é, so the “daughter of Zion” became Záiyon biché’é ‘Zion her-daughter’.”

Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff.

complete verse (Matthew 21:5)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 21:5:

  • Uma: “‘Say to the citizens of the town of Sion: Look, there is your King coming! He is humble lit., his heart is low], he rides a donkey, he rides a donkey child that is young.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘Tell the people of Awrusalam, ‘Look, your king comes, his liver is humble and he rides on the child of a donkey.’ ‘” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “‘Tell the inhabitants of Zion, ‘Your king is arriving today. His ruling you is not hot, and He is riding on the colt of an ass.’ ‘ This is what the prophet said.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘Tell to the inhabitants in Jerusalem, ‘Look, here-now your king is coming who has humbled (lit. lowered) himself to ride a young donkey.’ ‘” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “‘Tell the taga Sion, saying, ‘Look. Approaching now is the one who will reign over you. He really is meek/patient. An asno horse is what he is riding. A young-animal which is the young of an asno.”” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “‘Tell the people in the town of Zion this: There where you live will come your ruler. But there won’t be fighting with him, your ruler; he will ride on a donkey which is the child of a cargo animal, you will tell them.'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Matthew 21:5

Tell the daughter of Zion is a Hebrew idiom, which is rendered literally by most English translations, ancient and modern. The source for Tell the daughter of Zion is Isaiah 62.11, while the remainder of the quotation is found in Zechariah 9.9. In this construction the noun daughter is equivalent to either “city” (Good News Translation) or “the people of the city.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch goes one step beyond Good News Bible and identifies the lesser known Zion as Jerusalem: “Say to the city of Jerusalem.”

Behold (see comment at 1.20) has as its primary function that of drawing attention to the event which is to follow. It may be best to leave it implicit (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, New American Bible). Moffatt, An American Translation, New English Bible capture the effect by translating “Here is your king….”

It is significant that Matthew omits a line from Zechariah 9.9, where your king is coming to you is followed by “He comes triumphant and victorious.” Obviously Matthew’s primary concern was to focus upon the king’s humility.

In areas where the people do not have kings, your king may be translated “your ruler.”

The adjective humble is used elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel in 5.5 (“meek”) and 11.29 (“gentle”); see comment at 5.5, where Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “who renounces the use of force.” Note that Good News Translation starts a new sentence here, something many other translators have found to be helpful for readers too.

Mounted is generally rendered “seated (or, sitting)” or “riding.”

On an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass: Matthew definitely intends to refer to two separate animals, as all translations indicate except Living Bible, which cheats by translating “on a donkey’s colt.” The same sort of manipulation takes place in verse 7, where Living Bible translates “threw their garments over the colt,” with a footnote “Implied.” But the Greek text does not in any way imply this, and Living Bible has basically rewritten the text in an attempt to harmonize Matthew with the other Gospels, and to resolve the difficult image of Jesus riding on two animals. In doing this, Living Bible has obscured the uniquely Matthean presentation.

Some who translate too literally have made it seem that the king is riding on three animals (a donkey, a colt, and the foal of a donkey), but obviously a colt and the foal of an ass refer to the same animal. To say “a colt, which is the young of a donkey” will sound very condescending, so that if the two expressions are not understood to refer to the same animal, then translators can drop one of the phrases and say simply “he rides on a donkey, and on a donkey’s young.” If translators want to retain some poetic form, they may need to look for some other device which in their language will have the effect of the parallelism in the text.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .