Psalms 22:16 meaning and explanation
For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.
Psalms 22:16, Berean Standard Bible
Explanation preview
In this psalm David speaks as a suffering righteous man surrounded by enemies, and verse 16 pictures them as scavenging dogs closing in, with a gang of evildoers encircling him and his hands and feet pierced or, as some Hebrew manuscripts and ancient versions read, “like a lion.” The Hebrew text here is genuinely difficult, and the difference between “pierced” and “like a lion” turns on a single letter. Christians have long read the verse as a foreshadowing of the crucifixion, while Jewish readers hear it as the psalmist’s own persecution.
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