Psalms 22

Translator Notes

1. Ayyelet ha-Shachar ('the doe of the dawn') is most likely a melody name, though the image — a vulnerable animal at first light — resonates powerfully with the psalm's content. The doe hunted at dawn mirrors the sufferer surrounded by predators. In WLC versification, this superscription is verse 1.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. Jesus quotes this verse from the cross in Aramaic: Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani (Matthew 27:46). The fact that Jesus chose this psalm — not a psalm of confession, but a psalm of innocent suffering — is theologically significant. He identifies with the righteous sufferer, not the guilty penitent.
2. Shaagah ('roaring, groaning') is used elsewhere of lions (Psalm 104:21, Amos 3:4). The sufferer's cry has the raw intensity of an animal's roar — this is not polite prayer but primal anguish.

Translator Notes

1. The merism 'by day ... by night' means the crying is continuous — there is no relief at any hour. The phrase lo dumiyyah li ('no silence/rest for me') could mean either 'I have no silence' (I never stop crying) or 'there is no stillness for me' (I find no peace). Both readings reinforce the relentless, unanswered agony.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. Yoshev ('sitting, dwelling, enthroned') is the same verb used for kings sitting on thrones. God is not merely present in Israel's worship — he reigns from it. The praises of the people are the location of God's kingship.

Translator Notes

1. The threefold repetition of trust (batchu ... batchu ... tefalletemo) builds a case from history: the ancestors trusted, they kept trusting, and God delivered. The verb palat ('to escape, be delivered, be rescued') describes swift, complete rescue. The sufferer is constructing an argument — past faithfulness should guarantee present deliverance. But the argument will fail in his own case, which deepens the agony.

Translator Notes

1. Lo-voshu ('they were not put to shame') is the theological payoff: trusting God did not humiliate them. Shame (bosh) in Hebrew is public exposure as a fool — trusting in something that fails you. The ancestors trusted and were vindicated. The sufferer, by contrast, is being publicly shamed (vv. 7-9), which makes his situation an apparent contradiction of the historical pattern.

Translator Notes

1. Tolaath specifically refers to the crimson worm (tola'at shani), the insect crushed to produce scarlet dye. The image carries overtones of being crushed, of yielding color through destruction. Later Christian readers saw in this an image of Christ's blood-stained suffering, though the psalm's original context is simply one of utter degradation.

Translator Notes

1. Yaftiru ve-safah ('they open wide with the lip') describes a sneering, contemptuous gesture — pushing out the lower lip in mockery. Yaniu rosh ('they shake the head') is a gesture of scorn and dismissal. The sufferer's pain is a public spectacle, and the audience participates with derisive body language. Matthew 27:39 records the same gestures at the crucifixion: 'And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads.'

Translator Notes

1. The verb gol ('roll') is imperative in form but is quoted as past action by the mockers — 'he rolled (his burden) to the LORD.' This verb choice suggests total, weight-bearing trust, like rolling a heavy stone onto someone else. The mockery targets the completeness of the sufferer's dependence on God.

Translator Notes

1. The sufferer responds to the mockers not by arguing theology but by going back to his earliest experience of God. Gochi mi-baten ('the one who drew me from the belly') makes God the midwife. Mavtiachi al-shedei immi ('the one who made me trust at my mother's breasts') means that the sufferer's trust in God predates his conscious memory — God taught him trust before he could speak. This is the deepest possible foundation for faith: God was there at the beginning.

Translator Notes

1. Hoshlakhti ('I was cast, thrown') is passive — the sufferer did not choose God; he was thrown onto God at birth. The relationship is not voluntary but foundational, woven into his existence from the moment of emergence from the womb. The final phrase — Eli attah ('you are my God') — is a personal confession that echoes the opening cry of verse 2. Despite everything, the sufferer still claims God as his own.

Translator Notes

1. The spatial language is precise and devastating: God is far (rachaq), trouble is near (qerovah), and help is absent (ein ozer). The sufferer is caught between a distant God and a close enemy with no mediator, no ally, no helper. This is the setup for the violent imagery that follows.

Translator Notes

1. Bashan (the Golan Heights region) was famous for its rich pastureland and powerful cattle (Amos 4:1, Ezekiel 39:18). The 'bulls of Bashan' (abbirei Vashan) are the largest, most dangerous cattle in the known world — they represent enemies of overwhelming physical power. The verbs sevavuni ('they surround me') and kitteruni ('they encircle me') describe a tightening ring with no escape route.

Translator Notes

1. The animal imagery shifts from bulls to a lion (aryeh) — from encirclement to attack. Toref ve-shoeg ('tearing and roaring') describes a lion in the act of killing: tearing flesh while roaring. The open mouth (patsu pihem) conveys both the literal gaping jaws of a predator and the mouths of mockers hurling insults. The enemies are simultaneously verbal and physical threats.

Translator Notes

1. The sequence moves inward: water (external), bones (structural), heart (innermost). Each image represents a deeper level of collapse. Namas ('it melts') is the same verb used for the melting of the Canaanites' hearts in Joshua 2:11 — it describes the loss of all capacity to resist or endure.

Translator Notes

1. Cheres ('potsherd') is a broken piece of pottery — not just dry but shattered and useless. The tongue clinging to the jaws (leshoni mudbaq malqochay) describes extreme dehydration. John 19:28 records Jesus saying 'I thirst' from the cross. The final line — la-afar mavet tishpeteni ('to the dust of death you lay me') — is addressed to God. The sufferer does not blame his enemies for his death; he holds God responsible. The 'dust of death' is the grave itself, the return to the earth of Genesis 3:19.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The Masoretic Text reads כָּאֲרִי (ka'ari, 'like a lion') — yielding 'like a lion, my hands and my feet,' understood as the enemies surrounding and mauling the psalmist's extremities like a lion. This is the reading of the standard Hebrew text that TCR translates from.
2. Ancient versions preserve a different reading. The Septuagint (ōryxan, 'they dug/pierced'), some Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts, and the Syriac Peshitta support reading כָּאֲרוּ (ka'aru, 'they pierced'). Many modern translations (NIV, ESV, NASB) follow this variant. The single-letter difference (yod vs. vav) is one of the most debated textual variants in the Hebrew Bible.
3. Christian tradition reads 'they pierced my hands and my feet' as a prophecy of crucifixion (cf. John 20:25). Jewish tradition maintains the Masoretic reading. Both readings are ancient; neither can be dismissed. TCR follows the Masoretic Text as its stated source while fully documenting the variant.
4. Dogs in the biblical world were unclean scavengers (1 Kings 14:11, 21:23-24). To be surrounded by dogs is to be treated as carrion — already dead, already refuse.

Translator Notes

1. The sufferer is so emaciated that every bone is visible and countable (asapper kol atsmotai). This is the body of someone who has been wasting — from illness, torture, starvation, or all three. The pronoun 'they' (hemmah) shifts to the onlookers who watch the spectacle with fascinated contempt. The sufferer is both dying and being watched dying.

Translator Notes

1. The distinction between begadai ('my garments') and levushi ('my clothing/vesture') may indicate outer garments (divided into portions) and an inner garment (awarded by lot as a single piece). John 19:23-24 makes exactly this distinction: the soldiers divided the outer garments but cast lots for the seamless tunic.

Translator Notes

1. The sufferer turns from describing his enemies back to God. The plea al-tirchaq ('do not be far') echoes verse 12 and answers the opening complaint that God is rachoq ('far'). Eyaluti ('my strength') is a rare word — possibly from ayyal ('ram, deer'), suggesting swiftness and power. The imperative chushah ('hurry!') conveys desperation — time is running out.

Translator Notes

1. Nafshi ('my soul/life') is paralleled by yechidati ('my only one, my unique one, my darling'). Yechidah means 'only, solitary, unique' — the sufferer has only one life, and it is about to be taken. The 'sword' (cherev) represents violent death, and 'the dog' (kelev, singular) represents the most contemptible of the enemies from verse 17. The plea is not for comfort but for survival.

Translator Notes

1. Remim ('wild oxen') were massive, now-extinct aurochs — the largest and most dangerous bovines in the ancient world. The KJV translated this as 'unicorns' following the Septuagint's monokeros, but the reference is to the wild ox (Bos primigenius). Their horns were weapons of impalement.
2. The shift from petition to praise at anitani ('you have answered me') is unexplained. Some scholars propose that a priestly oracle of salvation was spoken between verses 22a and 22b during liturgical performance. Others see a pure act of faith. The text itself offers no mechanism — only the result.

Translator Notes

1. The vow to declare God's name (shimkha) to his brothers (echai) is quoted in Hebrews 2:12, where the writer applies it to Jesus declaring God's name to the church. In its psalmic context, the sufferer who was alone and surrounded by enemies now stands in the qahal ('assembly, congregation') among brothers — restored to community. The shift from isolation to assembly is itself a form of salvation.

Translator Notes

1. The scope begins expanding. The sufferer's individual praise broadens to include all who fear the LORD, all the seed of Jacob, all the seed of Israel. Three groups named, three commands given: halleluhu ('praise him'), kabbeduhu ('glorify/honor him'), guru mimmennu ('stand in awe of him'). The verb kavad ('glorify, honor') shares the root of kavod ('glory') — the worshippers are to add weight to God's reputation.

Translator Notes

1. Shiqqets ('to detest, abhor') is the verb form of sheqets ('abomination, detestable thing') — used for unclean animals and idolatrous practices. For God not to find the sufferer's affliction sheqets means that suffering does not make a person unclean or repulsive to God. This is a radical claim in a world where affliction was commonly interpreted as divine punishment.

Translator Notes

1. Me-ittekha tehillati ('from you is my praise') means the praise itself originates in God — the sufferer does not generate worship from his own resources; God supplies both the deliverance and the praise that responds to it. The vow fulfillment (nedarai ashallam) refers to the ancient practice of making a vow during crisis and paying it publicly after deliverance, typically with a todah ('thanksgiving') sacrifice and a communal meal (see next verse).

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The todah meal — the thanksgiving feast following vow fulfillment — is now described. The anavim ('humble, afflicted, poor') eat and are satisfied (yisba'u). This is not merely physical food but the communal celebration of God's deliverance. The blessing yechi levavkhem la-ad ('may your hearts live forever') extends the 'life' that was the sufferer's most desperate request (v. 21) to the entire worshipping community.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase kol mishpechot goyim ('all families of the nations') echoes the Abrahamic promise of Genesis 12:3 — 'in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.' The sufferer's story becomes the vehicle through which the nations encounter the God of Israel.

Translator Notes

1. Ha-melukhah ('the kingship, the royal sovereignty') belongs to the LORD — not to earthly kings, not to the enemies who seemed to triumph. This brief, powerful declaration provides the theological basis for the universal worship described in the surrounding verses. If YHWH is king over all nations, then all nations owe him allegiance.

Translator Notes

1. The inclusion of yordei afar ('those who go down to the dust') in the worshipping community is extraordinary — it suggests worship beyond death, a communion of the living and the dead before God. This pushes against the typical Old Testament view that the dead in Sheol cannot praise God (Psalm 6:5, 88:10-12). Either this psalm envisions a resurrection hope or it uses hyperbolic language to express the totality of God's sovereignty.

Translator Notes

1. Zera ('seed, offspring, generation') introduces the temporal dimension — not only all places and all peoples, but all future times will be included. The story of God's deliverance will be transmitted (yesuppar, 'it will be told, recounted') from generation to generation. The sufferer's experience becomes a permanent testimony.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The phrase ki asah ('for he has done it') echoes the declaration on the cross in John 19:30: tetelestai ('it is finished'). Whether or not the Gospel writer intended the echo, the structural parallel is striking — both are final declarations that a work of suffering and salvation is complete.
2. Tsidqato ('his righteousness') in this context is God's covenant faithfulness demonstrated through saving action. It is not abstract moral quality but concrete rescue — God's righteousness is what God does for the afflicted one.