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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 22:6 - 22:6
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(Heb.: 22:7-9)The sufferer complains of the greatness of his reproach, in order to move Jahve, who is Himself involved therein, to send him speedy succour. Notwithstanding his cry for help, he is in the deepest affliction without rescue. Every word of Psa 22:7 is echoed in the second part of the Book of Isaiah. There, as here, Israel is called a worm, Isa 41:14; there all these traits of suffering are found in the picture of the Servant of God, Isa 49:7; Isa 53:3, cf. Isa 50:6, and especially Isa 52:14 “so marred was His appearance, that He no longer looked like a man.” תֹּולַעַת is more particularly the kermes, or cochineal (vermiculus, whence color vermiculi, vermeil, vermiglio); but the point of comparison in the present instance is not the blood-red appearance, but the suffering so utterly defenceless and even ignominious. עָם is gen. subj., like גֹּוי, Isa 49:7. Jerome well renders the ἐξουθένωμα λαοῦ of the lxx by abjectio (Tertullian: nullificamen) plebis, not populi. The ἐξεμυκτήρισάν με, by which the lxx translates ילעיגו לי, is used by Luke, Luk 23:35, cf. Luk 16:14, in the history of the Passion; fulfilment and prediction so exactly coincide, that no more adequate expressions can be found in writing the gospel history than those presented by prophecy. In הִפְטִיר בְּשָׂפָה, what appears in other instances as the object of the action (to open the mouth wide, diducere labia), is regarded as the means of its execution; so that the verbal notion being rendered complete has its object in itself: to make an opening with the mouth, cf. פָּעַר בְּפֶה, Job 16:10, נָתַן בְּקֹול Psa 68:34; Ges. §138, 1, rem. 3. The shaking of the head is, as in Psa 109:25, cf. Psa 44:15; Psa 64:9, a gesture of surprise and astonishment at something unexpected and strange, not a προσνεύειν approving the injury of another, although נוּעַ, נוּד, נוּט, νεύ-ω, nu-t-o, nic-to, neigen, nicken, all form one family of roots. In Psa 22:9 the words of the mockers follow without לֵאמֹר. גֹּל is not the 3 praet. (lxx, cf. Mat 27:43) like אֹור, בֹּושׁ; it is not only in Piel (Jer 11:20; Jer 20:12, where גּלִּיתִי = גּלַּלְתִּי, Ew. §121, a) that it is transitive, but even in Kal; nor is it inf. absol. in the sense of the imperative (Hitz., Böttch.), although this infinitive form is found, but always only as an inf. intens. (Num 23:25; Rth 2:16, cf. Isa 24:19); but, in accordance with the parallels Psa 37:5 (where it is written גֹּול), Pro 16:3, cf. Psa 55:23; 1Pe 5:7, it is imperat.: roll, viz., thy doing and thy suffering to Jahve, i.e., commit it to Him. The mockers call out this גֹּל to the sufferer, and the rest they say of him with malicious looks askance. כִּי in the mouth of the foes is not confirmatory as in Psa 18:20, but a conditional ἐάν (in case, provided that).