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Journey of a Passage

Psalm 22:16

"Like a lion" or "they pierced"

The Masoretic Text reads ka'ari, "like a lion, my hands and my feet," a line without a verb. The Greek reads "they dug" (Giguet "ils m'ont percé," Vulgate "Foderunt"), implying a Hebrew verb ka'aru. A 1st-century Hebrew Psalms scroll from Nahal Hever is reported to read a verb form. The reading is genuinely disputed.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The psalm as first composedPsalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)
  2. Nahal Hever Psalms scroll (5/6HevPs)1st century AD (before 135)Descends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Psalter
Latin
  1. Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)c. AD 386–392, revised from the GreekTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Psalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)

    The psalm as first composed

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. About forty Psalms manuscripts from Qumran, Masada and Nahal Hever (c. 2nd century BC – 1st century AD) are the oldest copies.

  2. 1st century AD (before 135)

    Nahal Hever Psalms scroll (5/6HevPs)

    ⓘ Reports what manuscripts containedDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Reported reading: כארו (k'rw), a verb form, where the Masoretic text has כארי (k'ry). The meaning of k'rw is debated. The site has not examined the photograph.

    Source: P. W. Flint, "Contents of the Psalms Scrolls and Related Manuscripts," Oxford Handbook of the Psalms ↗

  3. c. AD 386–392, revised from the Greek

    Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Quoniam circumdederunt me canes multi; concilium malignantium obsedit me. Foderunt manus meas et pedes meos;

    Latin numbering: Psalm 21:17. Jerome revised this Latin Psalter from the Greek, so it is a witness to the Greek, not to the Hebrew.

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    כִּ֥י סְבָב֗וּנִי כְּלָ֫בִ֥ים עֲדַ֣ת מְ֭רֵעִים הִקִּיפ֑וּנִי כָּ֝אֲרִ֗י יָדַ֥י וְרַגְלָֽי׃

    For dogs surround me; a band of evildoers encircles me; like a lion (ka'ari) my hands and my feet

    Hebrew numbering: Psalm 22:17. Hebrew counts the title as verse 1.

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

  6. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Psalter

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Une multitude de chiens m’ont entouré; la synagogue des pervers m’assiége; ils m’ont percé les pieds et les mains,

    Greek numbering: Psalm 21:16. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text; not checked against Rahlfs' critical edition.

What changed, and why

The difference in Hebrew is between yod (י) and vav (ו) at the end of one word, two letters that look very similar. Ka'ari ("like a lion") matches the lions of 22:13 and 22:21 but leaves the line without a verb; Jewish translations supply a verb (NJPS 1985: "like lions [they maul] my hands and feet"). Ka'aru is not a known form of karah ("dig"), so even scholars who accept a verb debate its meaning: "dug," "bound," "shrivelled."

The Greek reading was made by Jewish translators before Christianity; it was not a Christian alteration. Equally, the Masoretic reading is not an anti-Christian change: medieval Masoretic notes already treat ka'ari here as the established reading. Christian translations generally follow the Greek; Jewish translations follow the Masoretic Text. The site shows both and does not decide.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Masoretic Text of 22:16 reads ka'ari.
  • Independently documentedThe Greek reads "they dug/pierced."
  • Strongly supportedA Nahal Hever scroll reads a verb (k'rw). Reported in the scroll's publication; not checked by the site.
  • Not independently verifiedEither reading was altered for religious reasons.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Psalm 22: My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me? →"To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar" ("the hind of the dawn"). The speaker cries "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He is a worm, scorned and mocked: "He trusted on the LORD… let him deliver him." Bulls, lions and dogs surround him; his bones are out of joint, his strength dried like a potsherd, his garments divided by lot, and his hands and feet are attacked in a line whose Hebrew is disputed. Suddenly, "thou hast heard me," and the psalm ends in praise spreading to the great congregation, the ends of the earth, the dead and the unborn.