John Calvin Commentary Psalms 22:16

"For dogs have compassed me: A company of evil-doers have inclosed me; They pierced my hands and my feet." — Psalms 22:16 (ASV)

They have pierced my hands and my feet. The original word, which we have translated they have pierced, is כארי, caari, which literally rendered is, like a lion. As all the Hebrew Bibles today, without exception, have this reading, I would have had great hesitation in departing from a reading which they all support, if the scope of the discourse did not compel me to do so, and if there were not strong grounds for conjecturing that this passage has been fraudulently corrupted by the Jews.

With respect to the Septuagint version, there is no doubt that the translators had read in the Hebrew text, כארו, caaru, that is the letter ו, vau, where there is now the letter י, yod. The Jews talk a great deal about the literal sense being purposely and deliberately overthrown by our rendering the original word as they have pierced: but for this allegation there is no basis in truth whatsoever.

What need was there to meddle so presumptuously in a matter where it was altogether unnecessary? Very great suspicion of falsehood, however, attaches to them, seeing it is the foremost desire of their hearts to strip the crucified Jesus of his honors and to divest him of his character as the Messiah and Redeemer.

If we receive this reading as they would have us do, the sense will be enveloped in remarkable obscurity. In the first place, it will be a defective form of expression, and to complete it, they say it is necessary to supply the verb to surround or to beset. But what do they mean by besetting the hands and the feet? Besetting belongs no more to these parts of the human body than to the whole man.

The absurdity of this argument being discovered, they resort to the most ridiculous old wives’ fables, according to their usual way, saying, that the lion, when he meets any man in his road, makes a circle with his tail before rushing upon his prey: from which it is abundantly evident that they are at a loss for arguments to support their view.

Again, since David, in the preceding verse, has used the comparison of a lion, the repetition of it in this verse would be superfluous. I refrain from insisting on what some of our expositors have observed, namely, that this noun, when it has the letter כ, caph, (which signifies as, the word denoting comparison) prefixed to it, commonly has different vowel points than those used in this passage.

My object, however, is not here to work hard to convince the Jews, who in controversy are in the highest degree obstinate and opinionated. I only intend briefly to show how wickedly they try to confuse Christians on account of the different reading that occurs in this place.

When they object that by the prescription of the law no man was fastened with nails to a cross, this betrays their gross ignorance of history, since it is certain that the Romans introduced many of their own customs and practices into the provinces they had conquered.

If they object that David was never nailed to a cross, the answer is easy: namely, that in lamenting his condition, he has used a comparison, declaring that he was no less afflicted by his enemies than the man who is suspended on a cross, having his hands and feet pierced through with nails.

We will encounter more of the same kind of metaphors shortly.