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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 22:16 - 22:16
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(Heb.: 22:17-19)A continuation, referring back to Psa 22:12, of the complaint of him who is dying and is already as it were dead. In the animal name כְּלָבִים, figuratively descriptive of character, beside shamelessness and meanness, special prominence is given to the propensity for biting and worrying, i.e., for persecuting; hence Symmachus and Theodotion render it θηράται κυνηγέται. In Psa 22:17 עֲדַת מְרֵעִים takes the place of כלבים; and this again is followed by הִקִּיף in the plur. (to do anything in a circle, to surround by forming a circle round, a climactic synonym, like כִּתֵּר to סָבַב) either per attractionem (cf. Psa 140:10; 1Sa 2:4), or on account of the collective עֵדָה. Tertullian renders it synagoga maleficorum, Jerome concilium pessimorum. But a faction gathered together for some evil purpose is also called עֵדָה, e.g., עֲדַת קֹרַח. In Psa 22:17 the meaning of כָּֽאֲרִי, instar leonis, is either that, selecting a point of attack, they make the rounds of his hands and feet, just as a lion does its prey upon which it springs as soon as its prey stirs; or, that, standing round about him like lions, they make all defence impossible to his hands, and all escape impossible to his feet. But whether we take this יָדַי וְרַגְלָי as accusative of the members beside the accusative of the person (vid., Psa 17:11), or as the object of the הִקִּיפוּ to be supplied from Psa 22:17, it still remains harsh and drawling so far as the language is concerned. Perceiving this, the Masora on Isa 38:13 observes, that כָּֽאֲרִי, in the two passages in which it occurs (Psa 22:17; Isa 38:13), occurs in two different meanings (לישׁני בתרי); just as the Midrash then also understands כארי in the Psalm as a verb used of marking with conjuring, magic characters.
(Note: Hupfeld suspects this Masoretic remark (קמצין בתרי לישׁני כָּֽאֲרִי ב) as a Christian interpolation, but it occurs in the alphabetical Masoreth register ותרויהון בתרי לישׁני ב ב. Even Elias Levita speaks of it with astonishment (in his מסרת המסרת [ed. Ginsburg, p. 253]) without doubting its genuineness, which must therefore have been confirmed, to his mind, by MS authority. Heidenheim also cites it in his edition of the Pentateuch, `ynym m'wr, on Num 24:9; and down to the present time no suspicion has been expressed on the part of Jewish critics, although all kinds of unsatisfactory attempts have been made to explain this Masoretic remark (e.g., in the periodical Biccure ha-'Ittim).)
Is the meaning of the Masora that כָּֽאֲרִי, in the passage before us, is equivalent to כָּֽאֲרִים? If so the form would be doubly Aramaic: both the participial form כָּאֵר (which only occurs in Hebrew in verbs med. E) and the apocopated plural, the occurrence of which in Hebrew is certainly, with Gesenius and Ewald, to be acknowledged in rare instances (vid., Psa 45:9, and compare on the other hand 2Sa 22:44), but which would here be a capricious form of expression most liable to be misapprehended. If כארי is to be understood as a verb, then it ought to be read כֹּֽאֲרֵי. Tradition is here manifestly unreliable. Even in MSS the readings כָּֽאֲרוּ and כָּֽאֲרֵי are found. The former is attested both by the Masora on Num 24:9 and by Jacob ben Chajim in the Masora finalis as the MS Chethîb.
(Note: The authenticity of this statement of the Masora כארי ידי ורגלי כארו כתיב may be disputed, especially since Jacob ben Chajim became a convert to Christianity, and other Masoretic testimonies do not mention a קרי וכתיב to כארי; nevertheless, in this instance, it would be premature to say that this statement is interpolated. Ant. Hulsius in his edition of the Psalter (1650) has written כארו in the margin according to the text of the Complutensis.)
Even the Targum, which renders mordent sicut leo manus et pedes meos, bears witness to the ancient hesitancy between the substantival and verbal rendering of the כארי. The other ancient versions have, without any doubt, read כארו. Aquila in the 1st edition of his translation rendered it ᾔσχυαν (from the Aramaic and Talmudic כָּאַר = כָּעַר to soil, part. כָּאוּר, dirty, nasty); but this is not applicable to hands and feet, and therefore has nothing to stand upon. In the 2nd edition of his translation the same Aquila had instead of this, like Symmachus, “they have bound,”
(Note: Also in Jerome's independent translation the reading vinxerunt is found by the side of fixerunt, just as Abraham of Zante paraphrases it in his paraphrase of the Psalter in rhyme גַּם כָּֽאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלַי אָסָרוּ. The want of a verb is too perceptible. Saadia supplies it in a different way “they compass me as a lion, to crush my hands and feet.”)
after כר, Arab. krr, to twist, lace; but this rendering is improbable since the Hebrew has other words for “to bind,” constringere. On the other hand nothing of any weight can be urged against the rendering of the lxx ὤρυξαν (Peshîto בזעו, Vulg. foderunt, Jer. fixerunt); for (1) even if we do not suppose any special verb כָּֽאֲרוּ ,כָּאַר can be expanded from כָּֽרוּ (כוּר) = כָּֽרֽוּ (כָּרָה) just in the same manner as רָֽאֲמָה, Zec 14:10 from רָמָה, cf. קָֽאֲמַיָּא Dan 7:16. And (2) that כוּר and כָּרָה can signify not merely to dig out and dig into, engrave, but also to dig through, pierce, is shown, - apart from the derivative מְכֵרָה (the similarity of the sound of which to μάχαιρα from the root μαχ, maksh, mraksh, is only accidental), - by the double meaning of the verbs נָקַר, ὀρύσσειν (e.g., ὀρύσσειν τὸν ἰσθμόν Herod. i. 174), fodere (hastâ); the lxx version of Psa 40:7 would also support this meaning, if κατετρήσω (from κατατιτρᾶν) in that passage had been the original reading instead of κατηρτίσω. If כָּֽאֲרוּ be read, then Psa 22:17, applied to David, perhaps under the influence of the figure of the attacking dogs (Böhl), says that the wicked bored into his hands and feet, and thus have made him fast, so that he is inevitably abandoned to their inhuman desires. The fulfilment in the nailing of the hands and (at least, the binding fast) of the feet of the Crucified One to the cross is clear. This is not the only passage in which it is predicated that the future Christ shall be murderously pierced; but it is the same in Isa 53:5 where He is said to be pierced (מְחֹלָל) on account of our sins, and in Zec 12:10, where Jahve describes Himself as ἐκκεντηθείς in Him.
Thus, therefore, the reading כָּֽאֲרוּ might at least have an equal right to be recognised with the present recepta, for which Hupfeld and Hitzig demand exclusive recognition; while Böttcher, - who reads כֹּֽאֲרֵי, and gives this the meaning“springing round about (after the manner of dogs), - regards the sicut leo as “a production of meagre Jewish wit;” and also Thenius after taking all possible pains to clear it up gives it up as hopeless, and with Meier, adopting a different division of the verse, renders it: “a mob of the wicked has encompassed me like lions. On my hands and feet I can count all my bones.” But then, how כָּֽאֲרִי comes limping on after the rest! And how lamely does יָדַי וְרַגְלַי precede Psa 22:18! How unnaturally does it limit עַצְמֹותָי, with which one chiefly associates the thought of the breast and ribs, to the hands and feet! אֲסַפֵּר is potientialis. Above in Psa 22:15 he has said that his bones are out of joint. There is no more reason for regarding this “I can count etc.” as referring to emaciation from grief, than there is for regarding the former as referring to writing with agony. He can count them because he is forcibly stretched out, and thereby all his bones stand out. In this condition he is a mockery to his foes. הִבִּיט signifies the turning of one's gaze to anything, רָאָה בְּ the fixing of one's sight upon it with pleasure. In Psa 22:19 a new feature is added to those that extend far beyond David himself: they part my garments among them.... It does not say they purpose doing it, they do it merely in their mind, but they do it in reality. This never happened to David, or at least not in the literal sense of his words, in which it has happened to Christ. In Him Psa 22:19 and Psa 22:19 are literally fulfilled. The parting of the בְּגָדֹים by the soldiers dividing his ἰμάτια among them into four parts; the casting lots upon the לְבוּשׁ by their not dividing the χιτὼν ἄῤῥαφος, but casting lots for it, Joh 19:23. לְבוּשׁ is the garment which is put on the body that it may not be bare; בְּגָדֹים the clothes, which one wraps around one's self for a covering; hence לבושׁ is punningly explained in B. Sabbath 77b by לא בושׁה (with which one has no need to be ashamed of being naked) in distinction from גלימא, a mantle (that through which one appears כגולם, because it conceals the outline of the body). In Job 24:7, and frequently, לבושׁ is an undergarment, or shirt, what in Arabic is called absolutely Arab. ṯwb, thôb “the garment,” or expressed according to the Roman distinction: the tunica in distinction from the toga, whose exact designation is מְעִיל. With Psa 22:19 of this Psalm it is exactly as with Zec 9:9, cf. Mat 21:5; in this instance also, the fulfilment has realised that which, in both phases of the synonymous expression, is seemingly identical.
(Note: On such fulfilments of prophecy, literal beyond all expectation, vid., Saat auf Hoffnung iii., 3, 47-51.)