Psalm 22 · a question people ask
"They have pierced my hands and feet" (22:16). What does the Hebrew say?
The WEB reads, "They have pierced my hands and feet" (22:16) (tap pierced). In the Hebrew text these notes are checked against, the Westminster Leningrad Codex, the word is ka'ari. It is tagged with the Strong's number of karah, and with the first of the two Brown-Driver-Briggs entries under that number. Brown-Driver-Briggs describes that entry as "vb. mng. dub., perh. bore, or dig, or hew", its short way of saying the verb's meaning is doubtful, perhaps bore, dig or hew, and it lists this verse as the entry's only use. Strong's gives the number's entry as "properly, to dig; figuratively, to plot; generally, to bore or open". In its entry for ari, lion, Strong's lists "pierce (from the margin)" among the renderings. The same word, with the same letters and vowels, is in Isaiah 38:13, tagged there as ari, where the WEB has "He breaks all my bones like a lion" (Isaiah 38:13). Thomas speaks of "the print of the nails" in Jesus' hands (John 20:25), and Luke tells that Jesus "showed them his hands and his feet" (Luke 24:40), but no New Testament verse quotes 22:16. These notes say only what the Hebrew text and the lexicons show, and they don't settle how the word should be read.
The verses
“For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.”
“I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.”
“The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.””
“See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.”