For the music director; according to the tune “Morning Doe;” 2 a psalm of David.
22:1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? 3
I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. 4
22:20 Deliver me 5 from the sword!
Save 6 my life 7 from the claws 8 of the wild dogs!
59:6 They return in the evening;
they growl 9 like a dog
and prowl around outside 10 the city.
59:14 They return in the evening;
they growl 11 like a dog
and prowl around outside 12 the city.
3:2 Beware of the dogs, 14 beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! 15
1 sn Psalm 22. The psalmist cries out to the Lord for deliverance from his dangerous enemies, who have surrounded him and threaten his life. Confident that the Lord will intervene, he then vows to thank the Lord publicly for his help and anticipates a time when all people will recognize the Lord’s greatness and worship him.
2 tn Heb “according to the doe of the dawn.” Apparently this refers to a particular musical tune or style.
3 sn From the psalmist’s perspective it seems that God has abandoned him, for he fails to answer his cry for help (vv. 1b-2).
4 tn Heb “far from my deliverance [are] the words of my groaning.” The Hebrew noun שְׁאָגָה (shÿ’agah) and its related verb שָׁאַג (sha’ag) are sometimes used of a lion’s roar, but they can also describe human groaning (see Job 3:24 and Pss 32:3 and 38:8.
5 tn Or “my life.”
6 tn The verb “save” is supplied in the translation; it is understood by ellipsis (see “deliver” in the preceding line).
7 tn Heb “my only one.” The psalmist may mean that his life is precious, or that he feels isolated and alone.
8 tn Heb “from the hand.” Here “hand” is understood by metonymy as a reference to the “paw” and thus the “claws” of the wild dogs.
9 tn Or “howl”; or “bark.”
10 tn Heb “go around.”
13 tn Or “howl”; or “bark.”
14 tn Heb “go around.”
17 tn Or “otherwise the latter will trample them under their feet and the former will turn around and tear you to pieces.” This verse is sometimes understood as a chiasm of the pattern a-b-b-a, in which the first and last clauses belong together (“dogs…turn around and tear you to pieces”) and the second and third clauses belong together (“pigs…trample them under their feet”).
21 sn Dogs is a figurative reference to false teachers whom Paul regards as just as filthy as dogs.
22 tn Grk “beware of the mutilation.”
25 tn On the term φάρμακοι (farmakoi) see L&N 53.101.
26 tn Or “lying,” “deceit.”