Psalm 22: "like a lion" or "they pierced"?
The Masoretic text reads ka'ari, "like a lion". The pre-Christian Septuagint reads "they dug/pierced", and a Dead Sea Scrolls era manuscript (5/6HevPs) has a verb, ka'aru. Both readings are ancient.
Psalm 22:17 (English 22:16) in most Hebrew Bibles reads "like a lion, my hands and my feet", which is hard to make sense of without adding a verb. JPS 1917 adds "they are at".
The Greek Septuagint, translated by Jews before Jesus, reads "they dug my hands and my feet". A Hebrew psalm scroll from Nahal Hever (1st century) has the letters kaf-aleph-resh-vav, a verb rather than "like a lion".
Either way, the psalm describes a man surrounded and mocked, his strength poured out, and his garments divided by lot (22:19), and it begins with the words Yeshua cried from the cross.
In the Scriptures
17כִּ֥י סְבָב֗וּנִי כְּלָ֫בִ֥ים עֲדַ֣ת מְ֭רֵעִים הִקִּיפ֑וּנִי כָּ֝אֲרִ֗י יָדַ֥י וְרַגְלָֽי׃
17For dogs have encompassed me; a company of evil-doers have inclosed me; like a lion, they are at my hands and my feet.
Psalms 22:17 (Hebrew & JPS 1917) · English Bibles: Psalms 22:16
19יְחַלְּק֣וּ בְגָדַ֣י לָהֶ֑ם וְעַל־לְ֝בוּשִׁ֗י יַפִּ֥ילוּ גוֹרָֽל׃
19They part my garments among them, and for my vesture do they cast lots.
Psalms 22:19 (Hebrew & JPS 1917) · English Bibles: Psalms 22:18
2אֵלִ֣י אֵ֭לִי לָמָ֣ה עֲזַבְתָּ֑נִי רָח֥וֹק מִֽ֝ישׁוּעָתִ֗י דִּבְרֵ֥י שַׁאֲגָתִֽי׃
2My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me, and art far from my help at the words of my cry?
Psalms 22:2 (Hebrew & JPS 1917) · English Bibles: Psalms 22:1
They pierced my hands and feet Ask about it
Sources
- Masoretic text, Psalm 22:17 (Westminster Leningrad Codex)
- Septuagint, Psalm 21:17
- 5/6HevPs (Nahal Hever psalms scroll), Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXXVIII (2000)