Psalm 22: My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy… Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them."

"But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him."

"Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round… I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax… My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture."

"Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns." From here the psalm turns to praise: "I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee… All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD… all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him… They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this."

The poem's movement

Two great parts: lament (vv. 1–21) and praise (vv. 22–31). The lament alternates between complaint ("but I am a worm") and memory of trust ("thou art he that took me out of the womb"). Animals close in: bulls (12), lion (13), dogs (16), lion and wild oxen (21). The turn comes in the middle of v. 21: "thou hast answered me" ('anitani).

Bashan bulls and stripping the condemned

Bashan, east of the Sea of Galilee, was famous for fat cattle (Amos 4:1). Executioners and soldiers took the clothing of the condemned; dividing garments by lot was a practical custom.

22:16: "like a lion" or "they pierced"?

The Masoretic text reads ka'ari yaday ve-raglay, "like a lion, my hands and my feet," a line without a verb. The library's Hebrew (WLC) prints ka'ari. The Greek reads ōryxan, "they dug/pierced" (Giguet "ils m'ont percé"; Vulgate foderunt), which implies a Hebrew ka'aru (with vav instead of yod, letters that look alike). A Hebrew Psalms fragment from Nahal Hever (5/6HevPs, 1st century AD) is reported to read k'rw, supporting a verb; the reading and its meaning ("dug," "bound," "shrivelled") are debated. Christian translations usually follow the Greek; Jewish translations the Masoretic text. See the passage page; this is a genuine textual problem, not a matter of bad faith on either side.

In the Gospels

Mark 15:34 and Matthew 27:46 give Jesus' cry in Aramaic, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" (Matthew: "Eli, Eli"). The mockery (22:7–8; Matthew 27:39–43), the divided garments (22:18; John 19:24) and "I will declare thy name unto my brethren" (22:22; Hebrews 2:12) are also applied to Jesus. The psalm's original setting is the prayer of an individual sufferer; Jewish tradition also reads it of Esther and of Israel in exile.

The versions

Greek and Latin Psalm 21. The Greek adds to v. 1 "look upon me" and reads the end of the verse "the words of my transgressions" (Vulgate "verba delictorum meorum"), from reading sha'agati, "my roaring," as shegagati, "my error." The title "Aijeleth Shahar" (hind of the dawn, probably a tune) becomes in Greek "for the help at dawn" (Vulgate "pro susceptione matutina").