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14 They open wide their mouths against me
    like ravening and roaring lions.
15 My strength is trickling away like water,
    and all my bones are dislocated.
My heart[a] has turned to wax
    and melts within me.
16 My mouth is as dry as clayware,
    and my tongue sticks to my jaw;[b]
    you have laid me down in the dust of death.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 22:15 Bones . . . heart: his combination of “bones” and “heart” (see note on Ps 4:8) was used to refer to the whole person (body and spirit) (see Ps 102:4; Prov 14:30; 15:30; Isa 66:14).
  2. Psalm 22:16 My mouth . . . jaw: see Jn 19:28 (“I thirst”). The dust of death: the netherworld, domain of the dead; the author is using the language of his day, as in Mesopotamian descriptions of the netherworld (see Job 7:9, 21).

14 I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint.(A)
My heart has turned to wax;(B)
    it has melted(C) within me.
15 My mouth[a] is dried up like a potsherd,(D)
    and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;(E)
    you lay me in the dust(F) of death.

16 Dogs(G) surround me,
    a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce[b](H) my hands and my feet.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 22:15 Probable reading of the original Hebrew text; Masoretic Text strength
  2. Psalm 22:16 Dead Sea Scrolls and some manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, Septuagint and Syriac; most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text me, / like a lion