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Psalm 22
The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.
Forsaken, yet still trusting
1 My El, my El, why have You forsaken me? Why are You far from my salvation, from the words of my roaring? 2 O my Elohim, I call by day, but You do not answer; and by night, but there is no rest for me. 3 Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. 4 In You our fathers trusted; they trusted, and You delivered them. 5 To You they cried out and were rescued; in You they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they curl their lips, they shake their heads: 8 "Commit yourself to Yahweh! Let Him deliver him; let Him rescue him, since He delights in him."
9 Yet You are He who brought me out of the womb; You made me trust at my mother's breasts. 10 On You I was cast from birth; from my mother's womb You have been my El. 11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.
12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. 13 They open wide their mouths against me, like a ravening and roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart has become like wax; it is melted within my inmost parts. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue clings to my jaws; You lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded me; a company of evildoers has closed in on me; they pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones; they look and stare at me. 18 They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
19 But You, Yahweh, do not be far off; O my Strength, hasten to help me. 20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my only life from the power of the dog. 21 Save me from the mouth of the lion; from the horns of the wild oxen You have answered me.
Praise in the great assembly
22 I will declare Your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You. 23 You who fear Yahweh, praise Him! All you seed of Jacob, glorify Him, and stand in awe of Him, all you seed of Israel! 24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; He has not hidden His face from him, but when he cried to Him, He heard. 25 From You comes my praise in the great assembly; I will pay my vows before those who fear Him. 26 The humble shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek Him shall praise Yahweh. May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh, and all the families of the nations shall bow down before You. 28 For the kingship belongs to Yahweh, and He rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and bow down; before Him shall kneel all who go down to the dust, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. 30 A seed shall serve Him; it shall be told of Adonai to the generation to come. 31 They shall come and declare His righteousness to a people yet to be born, that He has done it.
Notes
- 22:1 Title: "Aijeleth Hashshahar" is ayyelet hashshachar, "the doe of the dawn," probably the name of a melody to which the psalm was sung; its meaning is uncertain (for "For the choir director" see the note at 4:1). The psalm opens with "My El, my El" (eli, eli), and on the cross Yeshua cried out these very words; Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 give His cry in an Aramaic form ("Eli, Eli" in Matthew, "Eloi, Eloi" in Mark, "lama sabachthani"). To cry the opening line of a psalm could call the whole psalm to mind, a psalm that moves from abandonment to praise before the nations (verses 22-31).
- 22:16 This is one of the few places where the TRB departs from the Masoretic text, and it should be said plainly. The Masoretic text reads ka'ari, "like a lion," which leaves the line without a verb: "like a lion my hands and my feet" (the Targum supplies one: "biting like a lion my hands and my feet"; the same spelling, ka'ari, means "like a lion" in Isaiah 38:13). The ancient Greek translation, however, reads oryxan, "they dug," and the Syriac also reads a verb, "they pierced"; a few medieval Hebrew manuscripts read ka'aru or karu; and the Psalms scroll from Nahal Hever (5/6HevPs), copied in the first century, has k'rw, ending in vav (the ending of a plural verb) where the Masoretic text ends in yod, though how its spelling should be explained is debated. On this evidence, older than the medieval Masoretic manuscripts, the TRB reads "they pierced," while the exact sense of the verb is still discussed: "dug," "pierced," or, as the later Greek translations of Aquila and Symmachus took it, "bound." The New Testament does not quote this line; John 20:25 tells of the marks of the nails in Yeshua's hands, and in Luke 24:39-40 the risen Yeshua shows His hands and His feet.
- 22:18 The two lines are Hebrew parallelism, "garments" and "clothing" saying the same thing twice. John 19:24 tells how the soldiers at the cross divided Yeshua's garments and cast lots for His seamless tunic, and quotes this verse as fulfilled; the other Gospels tell of the dividing and the lots in words that echo it (Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24, Luke 23:34).
- 22:22 The prayer turns in the middle of verse 21: "You have answered me." From the lament of verses 1-21 the psalm moves to thanksgiving in the assembly (kahal), the gathered people of Yahweh. Hebrews 2:12 quotes this verse as spoken by Yeshua, who is not ashamed to call His people brothers; and after His resurrection He sent word to His brothers (John 20:17).
- 22:31 The praise widens in rings: the assembly (verse 22), all Israel (verse 23), the ends of the earth and the families of the nations (verse 27; compare the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, "in you all the families of the earth will be blessed"), the living and the dying (verse 29), and generations not yet born (verses 30-31). The psalm ends with "He has done it" (ki asah), the deliverance told as finished; many Christian readers have heard an echo of it in Yeshua's last word from the cross, that all was finished (John 19:30).