Psalms 22:16

Yes, ¹  wild dogs surround me – a gang of evil men crowd around me; like a lion they pin my hands and feet. ² 

Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.

For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.

My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs; an evil gang closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and feet.

Now packs of wild dogs come at me; thugs gang up on me. They pin me down hand and foot,

Dogs have come round me: I am shut in by the band of evil-doers; they made wounds in my hands and feet.

For dogs are all around me; a company of evildoers encircles me. My hands and feet have shriveled;

For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet;

Yes, ¹  wild dogs surround me – a gang of evil men crowd around me; like a lion they pin my hands and feet. ² 

¹ tn Or “for.”

² tn Heb “like a lion, my hands and my feet.” This reading is often emended because it is grammatically awkward, but perhaps its awkwardness is by rhetorical design. Its broken syntax may be intended to convey the panic and terror felt by the psalmist. The psalmist may envision a lion pinning the hands and feet of its victim to the ground with its paws (a scene depicted in ancient Near Eastern art), or a lion biting the hands and feet. The line has been traditionally translated, “they pierce my hands and feet,” and then taken as foreshadowing the crucifixion of Christ. Though Jesus does appropriate the language of this psalm while on the cross (compare v. 1 with Matt 27:46 and Mark 15:34), the NT does not cite this verse in describing the death of Jesus. (It does refer to vv. 7-8 and 18, however. See Matt 27:35, 39, 43; Mark 15:24, 29; Luke 23:34; John 19:23-24.) If one were to insist on an emendation of כָּאֲרִי (ka’ariy, “like a lion”) to a verb, the most likely verbal root would be כָּרָה (karah, “dig”; see the LXX). In this context this verb could refer to the gnawing and tearing of wild dogs (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV). The ancient Greek version produced by Symmachus reads “bind” here, perhaps understanding a verbal root כרך, which is attested in later Hebrew and Aramaic and means “to encircle, entwine, embrace” (see HALOT 497-98 s.v. כרך and Jastrow 668 s.v. כָּרַךְ). Neither one of these proposed verbs can yield a meaning “bore, pierce.”