Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 22:6
But I [am] a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
6. a worm ] Trampled under foot, despised, defenceless. Almost every word of this verse finds a parallel in the second part of Isaiah. Jehovah’s servant Israel is there called a worm (Isa 41:14); and the ideal representative of Israel is one whom men despise (Isa 49:7, Isa 53:3); from whom they shrink with horror as scarcely human (Isa 52:14, Isa 53:2-3). Comp. too Psa 51:7.
the people ] Or, people, generally; those with whom he is brought in contact.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
6, 7. The contrast of his own lot.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But I am a worm, and no man – In contrast with the fathers who trusted in thee. They prayed, and were heard; they confided in God, and were treated as men. I am left and forsaken, as if I were not worth regarding; as if I were a grovelling worm beneath the notice of the great God. In other words, I am treated as if I were the most insignificant, the most despicable, of all objects – alike unworthy the attention of God or man. By the one my prayers are unheard; by the other I am cast out and despised. Compare Job 25:6. As applicable to the Redeemer, this means that he was forsaken alike by God and men, as if he had no claims to the treatment due to a man.
A reproach of men – Reproached by men. Compare Isa 53:3, and the notes at that verse.
Despised of the people – That is, of the people who witnessed his sufferings. It is not necessary to say how completely this had a fulfillment in the sufferings of the Saviour.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. But I am a worm, and no man] I can see no sense in which our Lord could use these terms. David might well use them to express his vileness and worthlessness. The old Psalter gives this a remarkable turn: I am a worme, that es, I am borne of the mayden with outen manseede; and nout man anely, bot god als so: and nevir the latter, I am reprove of men. In spitting, buffetyng, and punging with the thornes and outkasting of folk; for thai chesed Barraban the thefe, and nought me.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Our fathers were honoured by thee and by others, because of thy appearance for their defence and deliverance; but I am treated like a worm, i.e. neglected and despised, both by thee, who dost not afford me help, and by the men of my age and nation, as it follows. For the phrase, see Job 25:6; Isa 41:14.
Despised of the people; not only of the great men, but also of the common people; which doth not so truly agree to David (who, though he was hated and persecuted by Saul and his courtiers, was honoured and beloved by the body of the people) as to Christ: compare Isa 53:2,3.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. He who was despised andrejected of His own people, as a disgrace to the nation, might welluse these words of deep abasement, which express not His real, butesteemed, value.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But I [am] a worm, and no man,…. Christ calls himself a worm, not because of his original, for he was not of the earth earthy, but was the Lord from heaven; nor because of his human nature, man being a worm, and the Son of Man such, Job 25:6; and because of his meanness and low estate in that nature, in his humiliation; nor to express his humility, and the mean thoughts he had of himself, as David, his type, calls himself a dead dog, and a flea, 1Sa 24:14; but on account of the opinion that men of the world had of him; so Jacob is called “a worm”, Isa 41:14; not only because mean in his own eyes, but contemptible in the eyes of others. The Jews esteemed Christ as a worm, and treated him as such; he was loathsome to them and hated by them; everyone trampled upon him and trod him under foot as men do worms; such a phrase is used of him in Heb 10:29; there is an agreement in some things between the worm and Christ in his state of humiliation; as in its uncomeliness and disagreeable appearance; so in Christ the Jews could discern no form nor comeliness wherefore he should be desired; and in its weakness, the worm being an impotent, unarmed, and defenceless creatures, hence the Chaldee paraphrase renders it here “a weak worm”; and though Christ is the mighty God, and is also the Son of Man whom God made strong for himself, yet mere was a weakness in his human nature and he was crucified through it, 2Co 13:4; and it has been observed by some, that the word here used signifies the scarlet worm, or the worm that is in the grain or berry with which scarlet is dyed; and like, is scarlet worm did our Lord look, when by way of mockery be was clothed with a scarlet robe; and especially when he appeared in his dyed garments, and was red in his apparel, as one that treadeth in the wine fat; when his body was covered with blood when he hung upon the cross, which was shed to make crimson and scarlet sins as white as wool. When Christ says he was “no man”, his meaning is, not that he was not truly and really man, for he assumed a true body and a reasonable soul; he partook of the same flesh and blood with his children, and was in all things made like unto his brethren, excepting sin; but that he was a man of no figure, he bore no office, and had no title of honour; he was not a Rabbi, nor a member of the Jewish sanhedrim; he had no share of government, either in the civil or ecclesiastic state; he was a carpenter’s son, and a carpenter; nor was he treated as a man, but in the most inhuman manner; he was despised and rejected of men, he was called a madman, and said to have a devil;
a reproach of men; he was reproached by men, as if he had been the worst of men; the reproaches of God and of his people all fell on him, insomuch that his heart was broken with them; see Ps 69:7; and it was reckoned a reproach to men to be seen in his company, or to be thought to belong to him, and be a disciple of his; hence some, who believed he was the Messiah, yet would not confess him, because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God, Joh 12:42;
and despised of the people; rejected with contempt as the Messiah, refused with scorn as the stone of Israel, disallowed of men, and set at nought by them; by “the people” are meant the people of the Jews, his own people and nation; which contempt of him they signified both by gestures and words, as in the following verses.
(When the female of the scarlet worm species was ready to give birth to her young, she would attach her body to the trunk of a tree, fixing herself so firmly and permanently that she would never leave again. The eggs deposited beneath her body were thus protected until the larvae were hatched and able to enter their own life cycle. As the mother died, the crimson fluid stained her body and the surrounding wood. From the dead bodies of such female scarlet worms, the commercial scarlet dyes of antiquity were extracted. x What a picture this gives of Christ, dying on the tree, shedding his precious blood that he might “bring many sons unto glory” (Heb 2:10)! He died for us, that we might live through him! Ps 22:6 describes such a worm and gives us this picture of Christ. (cf. Isa 1:18) Editor.)
x Dr. Henry Morris, “Biblical Basis for Modern Science”, p. 73. Baker Book House, 1985.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 22:7-9) The sufferer complains of the greatness of his reproach, in order to move Jahve, who is Himself involved therein, to send him speedy succour. Notwithstanding his cry for help, he is in the deepest affliction without rescue. Every word of Psa 22:7 is echoed in the second part of the Book of Isaiah. There, as here, Israel is called a worm, Isa 41:14; there all these traits of suffering are found in the picture of the Servant of God, Isa 49:7; Isa 53:3, cf. Isa 50:6, and especially Isa 52:14 “so marred was His appearance, that He no longer looked like a man.” is more particularly the kermes, or cochineal ( vermiculus , whence color vermiculi, vermeil, vermiglio ); but the point of comparison in the present instance is not the blood-red appearance, but the suffering so utterly defenceless and even ignominious. is gen. subj., like , Isa 49:7. Jerome well renders the of the lxx by abjectio (Tertullian: nullificamen ) plebis , not populi . The , by which the lxx translates , is used by Luke, Luk 23:35, cf. Luk 16:14, in the history of the Passion; fulfilment and prediction so exactly coincide, that no more adequate expressions can be found in writing the gospel history than those presented by prophecy. In , what appears in other instances as the object of the action (to open the mouth wide, diducere labia ), is regarded as the means of its execution; so that the verbal notion being rendered complete has its object in itself: to make an opening with the mouth, cf. , Job 16:10, Psa 68:34; Ges. 138, 1, rem. 3. The shaking of the head is, as in Psa 109:25, cf. Psa 44:15; Psa 64:9, a gesture of surprise and astonishment at something unexpected and strange, not a approving the injury of another, although , , , – , nu-t-o, nic-to, neigen, nicken, all form one family of roots. In Psa 22:9 the words of the mockers follow without . is not the 3 praet. (lxx, cf. Mat 27:43) like , ; it is not only in Piel (Jer 11:20; Jer 20:12, where = , Ew. 121, a) that it is transitive, but even in Kal; nor is it inf. absol. in the sense of the imperative (Hitz., Bttch.), although this infinitive form is found, but always only as an inf. intens. (Num 23:25; Rth 2:16, cf. Isa 24:19); but, in accordance with the parallels Psa 37:5 (where it is written ), Pro 16:3, cf. Psa 55:23; 1Pe 5:7, it is imperat.: roll, viz., thy doing and thy suffering to Jahve, i.e., commit it to Him. The mockers call out this to the sufferer, and the rest they say of him with malicious looks askance. in the mouth of the foes is not confirmatory as in Psa 18:20, but a conditional (in case, provided that).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
6. But I am a worm, and not a man. David does not murmur against God as if God had dealt hardly with him; but in bewailing his condition, he says, in order the more effectually to induce God to show him mercy, that he is not accounted so much as a man. This, it is true, seems at first sight to have a tendency to discourage the mind, or rather to destroy faith; but it will appear more clearly from the sequel, that so far from this being the case, David declares how miserable his condition is, that by this means he may encourage himself in the hope of obtaining relief. He therefore argues that it could not be but that God would at length stretch forth his hand to save him; to save him, I say, who was so severely afflicted, and on the brink of despair. If God has had compassion on all who have ever been afflicted, although afflicted only in a moderate degree, how could he forsake his servant when plunged in the lowest abyss of all calamities? Whenever, therefore, we are overwhelmed under a great weight of afflictions, we ought rather to take from this an argument to encourage us to hope for deliverance, than suffer ourselves to fall into despair. If God so severely exercised his most eminent servant David, and abased him so far that he had not a place even among the most despised of men, let us not take it ill, if, after his example, we are brought low. We ought, however, principally to call to our remembrance the Son of God, in whose person we know this also was fulfilled, as Isaiah had predicted,
“
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isa 53:3)
By these words of the prophet we are furnished with a sufficient refutation of the frivolous subtlety of those who have philosophised upon the word worm, as if David here pointed out some singular mystery in the generation of Christ; whereas his meaning simply is, that he had been abased beneath all men, and, as it were, cut off from the number of living beings. The fact that the Son of God suffered himself to be reduced to such ignominy, yea, descended even to hell, is so far from obscuring, in any respect, his celestial glory, that it is rather a bright mirror from which is reflected his unparalleled grace towards us.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) Worm.An indication of extreme degradation and helplessness. (Comp. Isa. 41:14.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. But I am a worm, and no man The contrast is with the “fathers.” They trusted and were helped, “but I, ah! a worm and not a man.” Nothing can exceed these verses in plaintive tenderness, in humility, and in childlike clinging to God. The word , ( tholaath,) rendered “worm,” is here used proverbially for lowness, vileness, insignificance; and it is literally the name of the scarlet worm, ( coccus ilicis,) an insignificant insect which fed on plants, chiefly the holm oak. It was extensively used for scarlet dye.
A reproach of men despised Comp. Isa 53:3; Mat 27:21-31
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But I am a worm, and no man. A reproach of men, and despised of the people.’
He recognised that He had taken the position of the lowest of the low. He had become a worm, not a man, helpless and there to be kicked, and trodden on, and crushed under the heel. He was taking on Himself the reproaches of His people (Isa 41:14), and thus He had become as one who was reproached by men, and was despised by the very people whom He had come to save. He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of Sorrows, humiliated by grief, One from Whom men hid their faces, because He had lost all esteem in the eyes of men (Isa 53:3).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 22:6. But I am a worm, &c. As if he had said, “Thou hearest others; but, as for me, thou sufferest me to pray, to groan, and to weep, but thou wilt not seem to hear me.” Christ may be said to have been a worm, with respect to the mean and poor condition in which he lived; but especially to the kind of death which he suffered; for he was stripped of his clothes, and fixed upon the cross, naked as a worm of the earth: See Php 2:7. Mat 27:39-43. Indeed, the best way to understand the sense of this psalm is to read the history of our Saviour’s passion.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Whence, Reader, is it, that while the fathers were made happy, Christ was thus treated, but because he stood in their law place, and endured the very curse which the law denounced against the sinner? And if he, the Surety, paid the debt, surely the principal debtor, the Surety paid for, ought to go free. Both could not, with strict justice, pay: and this explains wherefore that Holy One of God was thus despised, and made a derision and a reproach. But, while it explains the cause, who, blessed Jesus, shall calculate thy love? We need only turn to the Evangelists to behold these things awfully verified. Mat 27:41-43 ; Mar 15 ; Luk 23:1-56 etc.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 22:6 But I [am] a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
Ver. 6. But I am a worm, and no man ] David, saith a learned man, in the Arabic tongue signifieth a worm; to which he may here seem to allude. I am a worm, saith he; I am dust and ashes, saith Abraham; less than the least of thy lovingkindnesses, saith Jacob; Nos autem quid sumus? saith Moses. Thus the saints express themselves in a low language, as so many broken men. Contrarily the wicked speak big words, bubbles of words, as Peter hath it, ampullantur; as Pharaoh, who said, “Who is the Lord?” Nebuchadnezzar, “Who is that God that can deliver you?” Dan 3:15 ; “Who is Lord over us?” &c., Psa 12:4 . Our Lord Christ, of whom the greatest part of this psalm must be understood, emptied and humbled himself to the utmost, Phi 2:7-8 , that we might be exalted; this Sun of righteousness went ten degrees back in the dial of his Father, that he might come unto us with health in his wings, &c.
A reproach of men
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 22:6-8
6But I am a worm and not a man,
A reproach of men and despised by the people.
7All who see me sneer at me;
They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,
8Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him;
Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.
Psa 22:6-8 In spite of Psa 22:3-5 and God’s faithful actions in the past to those who trusted in Him, the psalmist did not feel helped.
1. he felt like a worm, Psa 22:6 (cf. Job 25:6; Isa 41:14)
2. he was reproached and despised by people, Psa 22:6 b
3. they sneered at him, Psa 22:7 (see Mat 27:39; Mar 15:29)
4. they mocked his faith and prayers, Psa 22:8
a. commit (lit. roll, cf. Psa 37:5; Pro 16:3) BDB 164, KB 193, Qal imperative (cf. Mat 27:43)
b. let Him deliver him BDB 812, KB 930, Piel imperfect used in a jussive sense (cf. Mat 27:43)
c. let Him rescue him BDB 664, KB 717, Hiphil imperfect used in a jussive sense
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
worm. Hebrew. tola’, not the ordinary word for “worm”, but the crimson coccus from which the scarlet dye was obtained. Hence rendered “scarlet” in Exo 25:4; Exo 26:1, &c. See note on Jos 2:18, and Exo 12:13. Jacob, so called Isa 41:14. Christ thus took the lowest place of His People.
man. Hebrew. ‘ish. App-14.
men. Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
despised. Compare Isa 53:3.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 22:6-8
Psa 22:6-8
“But I am a worm, and no man;
A reproach of men, and despised of the people.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn:
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying
Commit thyself unto Jehovah; let him deliver him:
Let him rescue him, seeing he delighteth in him.”
“But I am a worm” (Psa 22:6). Jesus is not speaking here of his own estimate of his own true importance and worth, but of the estimate that his enemies have made concerning him, as proved by the second half of the verse. “He is despised (as men despise a worm) and is not recognized by his contemporaries as a human being with rights.
“They laugh me to scorn … shoot out the lip … shake (or wag) the head” (Psa 22:7). The apostle Matthew recorded the fulfillment of this: “They that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads” (Mat 27:39).
“Let him (God) deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him” (Psa 22:8). These were the very words of Christ’s enemies while he suffered upon the Cross. “He trusteth in God; let him deliver him, if he desireth him” (Mat 27:43).
Barnes described this mockery by the rulers and High Priests of Israel as, “One of the most remarkable instances of blindness and infatuation that has ever occurred in the world, that the Jews should have used this language to taunt the dying Redeemer, without even suspecting that they were fulfilling the prophecies, and demonstrating at the very time when they were reviling him that he was indeed the true Messiah.”
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 22:6. The use of worm and man is for comparison only since David was not only a man, but an important one. But he was like the worm in that his body was subject to decay. Please see my comments on Job 25:6 in the 2nd volume of the commentary.
Psa 22:7-8. This paragraph is specifically a prophecy of Christ. It was fulfilled in Mat 27:42-43.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
I am: Job 25:6, Isa 41:14
a reproach: Psa 31:1, Psa 69:7-12, Psa 69:19, Psa 69:20, Psa 88:8, Isa 49:7, Isa 53:3, Lam 3:30, Mat 11:19, Mat 12:24, Mat 27:20-23, Joh 7:15, Joh 7:20, Joh 7:47-49, Joh 8:48, Rev 15:3, Heb 13:12
Reciprocal: Gen 21:9 – mocking Psa 22:24 – For Psa 31:11 – I was Psa 41:5 – Mine Psa 109:22 – For I Psa 109:25 – when they Psa 119:141 – small Isa 52:14 – his visage Jer 20:7 – I am Lam 3:14 – General Lam 3:46 – have Mat 9:24 – And Mat 13:55 – the carpenter’s Mat 26:61 – This Mat 27:39 – reviled Mar 3:22 – He hath Mar 9:12 – set Mar 10:34 – mock Mar 15:19 – they smote Luk 2:7 – and wrapped Luk 2:12 – General Luk 2:34 – for a Luk 6:25 – laugh Luk 9:26 – whosoever Luk 22:63 – mocked Luk 23:11 – set Luk 23:35 – Christ Joh 8:22 – Will Joh 9:29 – we know not Joh 19:2 – the soldiers Phi 2:7 – made 2Ti 3:3 – despisers Heb 12:2 – despising
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 22:6. But I am a worm, and no man Neglected and despised, as a mean reptile; a reproach of men, and despised of the people Not only of the great men, but also of the common people. This does not so truly agree to David (who, though he was hated and persecuted by Saul and his courtiers, was honoured and beloved by the body of the people) as to Christ: see Isa 53:2-3. Christ may be said to have been a worm. with respect to the mean and poor condition in which he lived; but especially to that kind of death which he suffered; for he was stripped of his clothes, and fixed upon the cross, naked as a worm of the earth. Dodd. See Php 2:7; Mat 27:39-43.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
22:6 But I [am] a {d} worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
(d) And seeming most miserable of all creatures, which referred to Christ, and in this appears the unspeakable love of God for man, that he would thus abase his son for our sakes.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
David’s humiliation and God’s faithfulness to him 22:6-10
The pattern of David’s thoughts in this section is very similar to that expressed in Psa 22:1-5. It is a second cycle of the same lament and confidence expressed there.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
By comparing himself to a worm, David was expressing his feelings of worthlessness, vulnerability, and contempt in the eyes of his enemies. The figure pictures feeling less than human (cf. Job 25:6; Isa 41:14). These foes were insulting him, despising him, and mocking his faith in God because the Lord was not rescuing him (cf. Mat 27:39; Mat 27:44). Shaking the head can signify rejection (cf. Psa 109:25) or astonishment (cf. Psa 64:8: Lam 2:15). The Lord Jesus’ enemies spoke these very words as He hung on the cross (Mat 27:42-43).