22:7 All who see me taunt 1 me;
they mock me 2 and shake their heads. 3
22:8 They say, 4
“Commit yourself 5 to the Lord!
Let the Lord 6 rescue him!
Let the Lord 7 deliver him, for he delights in him.” 8
22:12 Many bulls 9 surround me;
powerful bulls of Bashan 10 hem me in.
22:13 They 11 open their mouths to devour me 12
like a roaring lion that rips its prey. 13
22:14 My strength drains away like water; 14
all my bones are dislocated;
my heart 15 is like wax;
it melts away inside me.
1 tn Or “scoff at, deride, mock.”
2 tn Heb “they separate with a lip.” Apparently this refers to their verbal taunting.
3 sn Shake their heads. Apparently this refers to a taunting gesture. See also Job 16:4; Ps 109:25; Lam 2:15.
4 tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons. The psalmist here quotes the sarcastic taunts of his enemies.
5 tn Heb “roll [yourself].” The Hebrew verb גלל here has the sense of “commit” (see Prov 16:3). The imperatival form in the Hebrew text indicates the enemies here address the psalmist. Since they refer to him in the third person in the rest of the verse, some prefer to emend the verb to a perfect, “he commits himself to the
6 tn Heb “Let him”; the referent (the
7 tn Heb “Let him”; the referent (the
8 tn That is, “for he [the
sn This statement does not necessarily reflect the enemies’ actual belief, but it does reflect the psalmist’s confession. The psalmist’s enemies sarcastically appeal to God to help him, because he claims to be an object of divine favor. However, they probably doubted the reality of his claim.
9 sn The psalmist figuratively compares his enemies to dangerous bulls.
10 sn Bashan, located east of the Jordan River, was well-known for its cattle. See Ezek 39:18; Amos 4:1.
11 tn “They” refers to the psalmist’s enemies, who in the previous verse are described as “powerful bulls.”
12 tn Heb “they open against me their mouth[s].” To “open the mouth against” is a Hebrew idiom associated with eating and swallowing (see Ezek 2:8; Lam 2:16).
13 tn Heb “a lion ripping and roaring.”
14 tn Heb “like water I am poured out.”
15 sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s strength and courage.