The prophecy in vv. 9-10 is an insertion; v. 11 is the continuation of v. 8. The prophecy in v. 9 reveals that Christ would come in a righteous way with salvation for God’s people and that He would come as a King, but as a lowly King, a humiliated King, riding not on a majestic horse but on a donkey, even a colt of a donkey. This was fulfilled when Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem the last time (Matt. 21:1-11). At that time Christ was temporarily welcomed by the people of Israel.
The prophecy concerning the coming of Christ in this verse and the prophecy concerning the millennial kingdom in v. 10 are inserted between the first part of the chapter, concerned with Alexander the Great, and the last part, concerned with Antiochus Epiphanes. This entire book indicates that the all-inclusive Christ, who is the center and the circumference, the centrality and the universality, of God’s move to fulfill His economy on the earth, is intimately involved with human history and with the great human empires, especially the empires of Persia (chs. 1—6), and Greece and Rome (chs. 7—14).