21:9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those following kept shouting,14 “Hosanna15 to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!16Hosanna in the highest!”
tnGrk “were shouting, saying.” The participle λέγοντας (legontas) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.
15
tn The expression Ὡσαννά (hōsanna, literally in Hebrew, “O Lord, save”) in the quotation from Ps 118:25–26 was probably by this time a familiar liturgical expression of praise, on the order of “Hail to the king,” although both the underlying Aramaic and Hebrew expressions meant “O Lord, save us.” In words familiar to every Jew, the author is indicating that at this point every messianic expectation is now at the point of realization. It is clear from the words of the psalm shouted by the crowd that Jesus is being proclaimed as messianic king. See E. Lohse, TDNT 9:682–84.
snHosanna is an Aramaic expression that literally means, “help, I pray,” or “save, I pray.” By Jesus’ time it had become a strictly liturgical formula of praise, however, and was used as an exclamation of praise to God.