Bible Dictionaries
Colt

Holman Bible Dictionary

The young of various riding animals. 1. Young camels (Genesis 32:15 ), noted by the Hebrew term for “sons.” 2. Young donkeys (Genesis 49:11 ), also “son” in Hebrew. Compare Judges 10:4; Judges 12:14 , where Hebrew is “donkeys.” The New Testament uses the reference in Zechariah 9:9 as a prediction of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem ( Matthew 21:1; Mark 11:1; Luke 19:1; John 12:15 ). Zechariah apparently used parallelism, the basic structure of Hebrew poetry, to describe a rider on one young donkey. Mark, Luke, and John told the story of Jesus' entry with reference to one animal. Matthew mentioned two animals, including both the ass and the colt from Zechariah as separate animals.