Psalm 22
The full text of Psalm 22 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
For the choirmaster. According to The Doe of the Dawn. A psalm of David.
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they curl their lips, they wag their heads:
8 "He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!"
9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
10 On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
11 Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.
12 Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
19 But you, O LORD, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have answered me from the horns of the wild oxen!
22 I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the LORD!
May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
28 For kingship belongs to the LORD,
and he rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
30 Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness
to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.
Translation notes (8)
- Psalm 22:3a The Hebrew yoshev, 'sitting' or 'dwelling', is used elsewhere of God enthroned upon the cherubim, so the praises of Israel are here pictured as his throne; others construe the phrase as God dwelling amid Israel's praises. The Septuagint reads instead, 'you dwell in the holy place, the praise of Israel'.
- Psalm 22:6a The Hebrew tola'at (תּוֹלַעַת), 'worm', denotes the small grub or maggot, an image of what is trodden underfoot without resistance. The same word names the scale insect from which crimson dye was made, as in the phrase tola'at shani, 'scarlet'. Here the term expresses the speaker's sense of having lost human standing altogether.
- Psalm 22:12a Bashan, the fertile plateau east of the Sea of Galilee, was proverbial for its rich pasture and powerful, well-fed cattle (Deuteronomy 32:14; Amos 4:1). The Hebrew abbirei Vashan (אַבִּירֵי בָשָׁן), 'mighty ones of Bashan', casts the psalmist's enemies as such animals, beginning a sequence of predatory imagery that continues with the lion and the dogs of the following verses.
- Psalm 22:16a The Hebrew words ka'ari or ka'aru are difficult. The standard Hebrew text reads "like a lion [at] my hands and feet," but many manuscripts and versions support the translation "they pierced/dug."
- Psalm 22:18a All four Gospels describe the soldiers dividing Jesus's clothing at the crucifixion, and John 19:24 cites this verse explicitly as fulfilled. The parallelism pairs begadai (בְּגָדַי), 'my garments', with levushi, 'my clothing', a common Hebrew poetic doubling; John reads the two lines as two distinct actions, dividing the outer garments and casting lots for the tunic.
- Psalm 22:21a The shift from a request (petition) to the perfect tense "you have answered me" marks the dramatic turning point of the psalm.
- Psalm 22:22a This verse marks the psalm's turn from lament to praise, which continues through the end. Hebrew qahal, 'congregation', appears in the Septuagint as ekklēsia, 'assembly', the form quoted in Hebrews 2:12, where the words are placed on the lips of Christ declaring solidarity with his brothers.
- Psalm 22:29a This verse is difficult to translate; it possibly means "even he whose soul does not live," which would extend worship to the dead or dying.
About this translation
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