This is a continuing look into Psalm 22 as the music in Jesus’ heart as He endured the cross.

The NET note (33) explaining this translation—The roof of my mouth—reads:

Heb “my strength” (כֹּחִי, kokhi), but many prefer to emend the text to חִכִּי (khiki, “my palate”; cf. NEB, NRSV “my mouth”) assuming that an error of transposition has occurred in the traditional Hebrew text.

Since the Septuagint also has ἰσχύς μου (a form of ἐγώ), My strength, this “error of transposition” would have occurred, taken root and spread sometime prior to the translation of the Septuagint.  Regardless the theme of dryness following the melting heart of the previous verse is fairly clear.

So whether it was his strength or the roof of [his] mouth, it was dried up (yāḇēš, יָ֘בֵ֚שׁ; Septuagint: ἐξηράνθη, a form of ξηραίνω) like a potsherd.  His tongue cleaveth, sticks (dāḇaq, מֻדְבָּ֣ק; Septuagint: κεκόλληται, a form of κολλάω) to his jaws, gums.  He was brought…into the dust (ʿāp̄ār, לַֽעֲפַר; Septuagint: χοῦν, a form of χοῦς) of death.

“I am thirsty!”^[1] Jesus said from the cross.  The NET note (84) reads:

In order to fulfill (τελειωθῇ [teleiōthē], a wordplay on the previous statement that everything was completed [τετέλεσται, tetelestai]) the scripture, he said, “I am thirsty.” The scripture referred to is probably Ps 69:21, “They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Also suggested, however, is Ps 22:15, “My tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth, and you [God] lay me in the dust of death.” Ps 22:1 reads “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?,” a statement Jesus makes from the cross in both Matt 27:46 and Mark 15:34. In light of the connection in the Fourth Gospel between thirst and the living water which Jesus offers, it is highly ironic that here Jesus himself, the source of that living water, expresses his thirst. And since 7:39 associates the living water with the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ statement here in 19:28 amounts to an admission that at this point he has been forsaken by God (cf. Ps 22:1, Matt 27:46, and Mark 15:34).

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.  So I’m going with Jesus was thirsty, rather than that He was abandoned (John 1:32-34) by the Holy Spirit.  He was offered something to drink and received (ἔλαβεν, a form of λαμβάνω) it (John 19:29, 30 NET):

A^[2] jar full of sour wine was there, so^[3] they put a sponge soaked^[4] in sour wine^[5] on a branch of hyssop^[6] and lifted it to his mouth.  When he had received the sour wine,^[7] Jesus said, “It is completed!”  Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

In other words, He drank the sour wine and died, gave up his spirit.

The Hebrew word כָּֽ֜אֲרִ֗י, they pierced (Tanakh), like a lion they pin (NET), appears in both lists of verses in the lexicon on blueletterbible.org: as a form of אֲרִי (‘ărî) and as a form of כָּרָה (kārâ).  There doesn’t seem to be any real question that the printed form כָּֽ֜אֲרִ֗י in the Masoretic text is a form of אֲרִי (‘ărî).  A table of the occurrences of forms of אֲרִי (‘ărî) in the Psalms follows.

The Septuagint is the problem here: While every other occurrence was translated λέων or λέοντος (a form of λέων, lion) the occurrence in question was translated ὤρυξαν (a form of ὀρύσσω, not a lion). It doesn’t seem like a translation of any form of אֲרִי (‘ărî) at all.  “Where, then, does the ‘pierced’ rendering come from?” Conrad R. Gren asked rhetorically in an article—“Piercing the Ambiguities of Psalm 22:16 and the Messiah’s Mission”—published June 2005 in the Journal of Evangelical Theological Society:

First, we note that this translation predates the KJV. The Geneva Bible of 1560 states, “they perced mine hands and my feete,” while the KJV reads, “they pierced my hands and my feet.” These readings come from the Greek Septuagint and Jerome’s Latin Vulgate. Psalm 22:16 is one place where the LXX best reflects the original Hebrew Vorlage text.

Jeff A. Benner explained the Hebrew issue in an article—Psalm 22:17: “Like a lion” or “they pierced?”—on the Ancient Hebrew Research Center online:

The word כארי (ka’ari) is the Hebrew word ארי (ari) meaning “lion,” with the prefix כ (k) meaning “like.” So כארי (ka’ari) means “like a lion.” The word כארו (ka’aru) is the Hebrew verb כאר (K.A.R) meaning “to dig” or possibly “to pierce” (the meaning of this word is determined by examining other Semitic languages that do use this word). When the letter vav (ו) is added to the end of a verb, it identifies the verb as perfect tense (similar to our past tense) and the subject of the verb as third person, masculine, plural. So this verb would be translated as “they dug” or “they pierced.”

Mr. Benner also described the difference between reading printed text and manuscripts:

The Hebrew word כארי (ka’ariy-like a lion) is the word found in the Masoretic Hebrew text in this verse. However, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which is 1,000 years older than the Masoretic Hebrew text, the letters yud and vav look almost identical, so it is possible, from the Dead Sea Scrolls to read this word as כארו (ka’aru) or כארי (ka’ariy).

“If Psalm 22:17 is translated with the word כארו (ka’aru),” Mr. Benner wrote, “then it would read as; For dogs will surround me, the assembly of evil ones encompasses me; they pierced my hands and feet.”  A table of all occurrences of forms of כָּרָה (kārâ) follows:

Most were translated with forms of ὀρύσσω.  Mr. Gren offered some historical background on the manuscripts:^[12]

The Qumran Psalters do not contain this verse. However, a scroll from the same era found at nearby Nahal Hever known as 5/6HevPsalms reads, “They have pierced my hands and my feet”!¹² Though the documents were found in 1951 or 52, this reading was not discovered until around 1997! Further, it did not appear in print until The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible was published in 1999. The implications are enormous. Here we have a Hebrew text over 1,000 years older than the oldest known copy of the standard Hebrew Masoretic text, which supports the reading found in the Greek Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate. No longer can Hebrew scholars claim that the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate are here faulty reflections of the original Hebrew.

John wrote about encounters between Jesus’ and his disciples after his resurrection (John 20:19, 20, 24-27 NET):

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week,^[13] the disciples had gathered together^[14] and locked the doors of the place because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.  Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”  When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his^[15] side.  Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord…

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus^[16] came.  The other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”  But he replied, “Unless I see the wounds from the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the wounds from the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe it!”

Eight days later the disciples were again together in the house, and Thomas was with them.  Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and examine my hands.  Extend your hand and put it into my side.  Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe.”

If I were a Masorete editing the Bible according to Jewish tradition, including the tradition of rejecting Jesus as Messiah, I wouldn’t want any mention of dug, gouged or pierced hands and feet in an ancient Psalm of David.

Tables comparing Psalm 22:15 and 22:16 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing the Greek of Psalm 22:15 (21:16) and 22:16 (21:17) in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables comparing John 19:28, 29; 20:19, 20 and 20:24 in the NET and KJV follow.