Surrounded, Poured Out, and Stripped before Enemies

The lament piles up bodily and animal imagery: bulls and lions surround, the sufferer is poured out like water, strength dries up, and enemies divide clothing and cast lots. The KJV also reads “they pierced my hands and my feet” in verse 16.

John 19:24 explicitly connects the division of Jesus’ garments to Psalm 22:18, and the crucifixion setting makes the section highly important for Passion interpretation. Verse 16, however, has a genuine textual question: the Masoretic reading differs from the verbal reading reflected in the Septuagint and supported by a Nahal Hever Hebrew witness. A responsible reading should retain “pierced” as an ancient, textually supported reading while explaining the variant rather than pretending no debate exists.