Discovery BoxPsalms 22:12-15 
Context22:12 Many bulls 1 surround me;
powerful bulls of Bashan 2 hem me in.
22:13 They 3 open their mouths to devour me 4
like a roaring lion that rips its prey. 5
22:14 My strength drains away like water; 6
all my bones are dislocated;
my heart 7 is like wax;
it melts away inside me.
22:15 The roof of my mouth 8 is as dry as a piece of pottery;
my tongue sticks to my gums. 9
1 sn The psalmist figuratively compares his enemies to dangerous bulls.
2 sn Bashan, located east of the Jordan River, was well-known for its cattle. See Ezek 39:18; Amos 4:1.
3 tn “They” refers to the psalmist’s enemies, who in the previous verse are described as “powerful bulls.”
4 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).
5 tn Heb “a lion ripping and roaring.”
6 tn Heb “like water I am poured out.”
7 sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s strength and courage.
8 tc Heb “my strength” (כֹּחִי, kokhiy), but many prefer to emend the text to חִכִּי (khikiy, “my palate”; cf. NEB, NRSV “my mouth”) assuming that an error of transposition has occurred in the traditional Hebrew text.
9 tn Cf. NEB “my jaw”; NASB, NRSV “my jaws”; NIV “the roof of my mouth.”
10 sn Here the psalmist addresses God and suggests that God is ultimately responsible for what is happening because of his failure to intervene (see vv. 1-2, 11).
11 sn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the progressive nature of the action. The psalmist is in the process of dying.
