Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 22:15
My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
15. The vital sap and moisture of the body are dried up. Cp. Psa 32:4. Possibly for my strength we should read my palate. Cp. Psa 69:3.
thou hast brought me ] Thou art laying me. Even in this persecution he can recognise the hand of God. His tormentors are Jehovah’s instruments. Cp. Act 2:23.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My strength is dried up like a potsherd, – A potsherd is a fragment of a broken pot, or a piece of earthenware. See Isa 45:9, note; and Job 2:8, note. The meaning here is, that his strength was not vigorous like a green tree that was growing, and that was full of sap, but it was like a brittle piece of earthenware, so dry and fragile that it could be easily crumbled to pieces.
And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws – See the notes at Job 29:10. The meaning here is, that his mouth was dry, and he could not speak. His tongue adhered to the roof of his mouth so that he could not use it – another description of the effects of intense thirst. Compare Joh 19:28.
And thou hast brought me into the dust of death – Or, as we should say, to dust – to the grave – to the dust where death reigns. See the notes at Dan 12:2. The meaning is, that he was near death; or, was just ready to die. Who can show that the Redeemer when on the cross may not in his own meditations have gone over these very expressions in the psalm as applicable to himself?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. My strength is dried up] All these expressions mark a most distressed and hopeless case.
Into the dust of death.] This means only that he was apparently brought nigh to the grave, and consequent corruption; this latter David saw; but Jesus Christ never saw corruption.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I have in a manner no more radical moisture left in me than is in a dry potsherd.
My tongue eleaveth to my jaws, through that excessive thirst and drought. See Joh 19:20.
Thou hast brought me into the dust of death; partly by thy providence delivering me into the power of mine enemies, and partly by thy terrors in my mind and soul.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. the dust of deathofcourse, denotes the grave. We need not try to find the exactcounterpart of each item of the description in the particulars of ourSaviour’s sufferings. Figurative language resembles pictures ofhistorical scenes, presenting substantial truth, under illustrations,which, though not essential to the facts, are not inconsistent withthem. Were any portion of Christ’s terrible sufferings speciallydesigned, it was doubtless that of the garden of Gethsemane.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My strength is dried up like a potsherd,…. The radical moisture of his body was dried up through his loss of blood and spirits, and through the violent fever upon him, brought on him by his being hurried from court to court; and which generally attends persons under a panic, in consternation and fear of danger and death, and at crucifixion; or this was occasioned by the inward sorrow and distress of his mind, which affected his body and dried his bones, as a broken spirit is said to do, Pr 17:22; and chiefly it was brought upon him through the sense he had the wrath of God, which like fire dried up his strength, just as a potsherd burnt in a furnace; which expresses his dolorous sufferings, which were typified by the passover lamb being roasted with fire, and the manna being baked in pans;
and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; so that he could not, or rather would not, speak; this phrase sometimes signifying silence, Job 29:10 Eze 3:26. Thus Christ answered not a word to the charges of the false witnesses before the high priest, nor to the accusations of the chief priests and elders before Pilate; nor did he open his mouth, when he was led to be crucified, neither against the law and justice of God, nor against his people for whom he suffered, nor against his enemies who used him cruelly; when he was reviled he reviled not again; but rather this was occasioned by thirst, through the violent fever that was upon him; see La 4:4; Hence, when he hung upon the cross, he said, “I thirst”, Joh 19:28;
and thou hast brought me into the dust of death; meaning either death itself, which brings to the dust, and which is signified in this psalm by going down to it, Ps 22:29; or the grave, where the body crumbles into dust, and where it is covered with dust, and therefore is said to sleep in the dust of the earth, Da 12:2; and accordingly the Targum renders it here, “thou hast shut me up in the house of the grave”: now Christ both died and was laid in the grave, though he did not lie there so long as to corrupt and decompose, yet he might be truly said to be laid in the dust: and this is attributed to God, to his counsel, disposal, and Providence; and even whatever was done to Christ antecedent to his death, and which led on to it, were what God’s hand and counsel had determined to be done; and though it was with wicked hands the Jews took Christ and used him in the manner after related, and crucified and slew him, he was delivered to them by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God; and by these he was delivered into the hands of justice, and brought to death itself, Ac 2:23.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. My strength is dried up. He means the vigor which is imparted to us by the radical moisture, as physicians call it. What he adds in the next clause, My tongue cleaveth to my jaws, is of the same import. We know that excessive grief not only consumes the vital spirits, but also dries up almost all the moisture which is in our bodies. He next declares, that in consequence of this, he was adjudged or devoted to the grave: Thou hast brought me to the dust of death. By this he intimates, that all hope of life was taken from him; and in this sense Paul also says, (2Co 1:9,) that “he had received the sentence of death in himself.” But David here speaks of himself in hyperbolical language, and he does this in order to lead us beyond himself to Christ. The dreadful encounter of our Redeemer with death, by which there was forced from his body blood instead of sweat; his descent into hell, by which he tasted of the wrath of God which was due to sinners; and, in short, his emptying himself, could not be adequately expressed by any of the ordinary forms of speech. Moreover, David speaks of death as those who are in trouble are accustomed to speak of it, who, struck with fear, can think of nothing but of their being reduced to dust and to destruction. Whenever the minds of the saints are surrounded and oppressed with this darkness, there is always some unbelief mixed with their exercise, which prevents them from all at once emerging from it to the light of a new life. But in Christ these two things were wonderfully conjoined, namely, terror, proceeding from a sense of the curse of God; and patience, arising from faith, which tranquillised all the mental emotions, so that they continued in complete and willing subjection to the authority of God. With respect to ourselves, who are not endued with the like power, if at any time, upon beholding nothing but destruction near us, we are for a season greatly dismayed, we should endeavor by degrees to recover courage, and to elevate ourselves to the hope which quickens the dead.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) My strength.The conjecture, my palate, instead of my strength, improves the parallelism. Others, but not so happily, my moisture.
The dust of death.Comp. Shakespeares Macbeth:
The way to dusty death.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Dried up like a potsherd The humidity of my body is burned out like a piece of pottery in a furnace. The metaphor is twofold the shrinking or drying by heat, and worthlessness, as a sherd or fragment of pottery. Isa 45:9; Lam 4:2.
My tongue cleaveth to my jaws , ( malkohah,) my jaws, from , ( lakahh,) he received, applies to the jaws because they receive the food. The word is always elsewhere, except once, rendered prey. The Septuagint, “My tongue is glued to my throat,” and Vulgate, “faucibus,” are incorrect, as also the version of the liturgy, “gums.” This condition of the tongue, naturally so humid, involves great exhaustion and thirst, and prophetically points to the closing part of the sufferings on the cross when the Saviour cried, “I thirst.” Joh 19:28; Psa 69:21. His soul agony reached its highest expression in the complaint, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,” and when this had passed, and he returned to a consciousness of his physical suffering, the sensation which arose above all others was signified in the words, “I thirst.”
Thou hast brought me into the dust of death The word rendered “thou hast brought me,” means to arrange, dispose, place, as 2Ki 4:38; Isa 26:2; Eze 24:3; and the idea is, Thou hast laid me out for the grave. On “dust of death,” a poetical phrase for the decomposition of death, see Psa 30:9
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws, and You have brought me into the dust of death.’
His body had been toughened by His manner of life, but now all His strength had flowed out of Him. On top of the other pain, the hot sun had dried Him out, as the sweat had poured from His body, so that He was like a pot which had been fashioned in the fire and which had had all the moisture removed from it, leaving it dried and cracked, while His tongue stuck to His dried out mouth, as lingering death slowly took possession of Him. The One Who was the Lord of life was conscious that His body would shortly be brought to dust through death, a contradiction to His very nature.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
Ver. 15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd ] My spirits are utterly spent, my natural moisture quite wasted and dried up, Viror meus. Humidum radicale membra in unum conglutinans (Aben Ezra); so that I am even like a skin bottle in the smoke, &c. For “my strength” some read my palate.
And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws
And thou hast brought me into the dust of death
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
dried up. Compare Joh 19:28.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 22:15-16
Psa 22:15-16
“My strength is dried up like a potsherd;
And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws;
And thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
For dogs have compassed me:
A company of evil-doers have enclosed me;
They pierced my hands and my feet.”
“Strength is dried up … tongue cleaveth to my jaws” (Psa 22:15). These words speak eloquently of the Saviour’s thirst upon the cross, to alleviate which there was no effort whatever, except that of a Roman soldier who offered him, from his daily rations, a little sour wine on a sponge (Mat 27:48).
“Thou hast brought me into the dust of death” (Psa 22:15). This emphasizes the truth that we are here dealing with an execution, not some kind of a disease.
“The dogs have compassed me” (Psa 22:16). Who are the dogs? Like the Bulls of Bashan, these dogs were not animals at all. The genius of Hebrew poetry in which the thought is repeated in parallel lines makes it abundantly clear that the “dogs” here are “a company of evil-doers,” namely, the blood-thirsty priests of the Sanhedrin, who by suborned testimony, political intimidation, and mob violence achieved the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. No better example of dogs ever existed.
“They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psa 22:16). We shall not delve into the question of the rendition “pierced” as it appears here. Unbelievers, of course, would accept any other rendition available if they could find one; but as Addis admitted, all other renditions make no sense at all. “It is impossible to give any satisfactory explanation.”
The translators of the LXX, some quarter of a millennium before Christ was born, properly translated the disputed word here as “pierced,” and theirs was certainly an unbiased translation. As Leupold stated, “This rendition can safely be retained; it is the one statement that most certainly identifies the form of death here as that by crucifixion.”
The most astounding and ridiculous comment on this piercing of the hands and the feet of Jesus which we have ever encountered is that of the usually dependable Dummelow, who wrote:
“`They pierced my hands and my feet.’ The reference is still to the dogs who snap at the exposed parts (such as hands and feet) when they attack (during the crucifixion).”
Apparently, Dummelow did not understand Hebrew poetry, or the fact that with a band of soldiers presiding over the crucifixion, no dogs would have been allowed to participate in it. Furthermore, literal dogs neither would have or could have “pierced” Jesus’ hands and feet. A Roman cross always elevated the victim above the earth and well out of the reach of any dog. Furthermore, dogs never pierce their victims, they mutilate and tear them. Dummelow’s impossible comment points up the desperation of the radical critics trying vainly to avoid the necessity of admitting predictive prophecy.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 22:15. This verse is practically the same in thought as the preceding one. It describes the physical condition of one who is dying. That would be especially true where the condition was not caused by any active disease, but by the slow ebbing of the forces of life through nervous exhaustion.
Psa 22:16. Dogs is used figuratively, referring to the wickedest of men. It applied specifically to the soldiers who executed the Roman sentence and drove the nails through the hands and feet of Jesus.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
strength: Psa 32:3, Psa 32:4, Pro 17:22
tongue: Psa 69:3, Psa 69:21, Job 29:10, Lam 4:4, Joh 19:28
into the: Psa 30:9, Psa 104:29, Gen 3:19, Gen 18:27, Job 7:21, Job 10:9, Job 34:15, Isa 53:12, Dan 12:2, Mat 27:50, 1Co 15:3
Reciprocal: Lev 3:14 – the fat that covereth Deu 16:7 – roast Jdg 15:18 – he was sore Job 33:21 – his bones Psa 31:9 – my soul Psa 88:15 – while Psa 102:3 – my bones Psa 113:7 – out of Psa 119:25 – soul Psa 119:83 – like a bottle in the smoke Psa 137:6 – let my tongue Isa 26:19 – Awake Isa 41:17 – their tongue Isa 52:14 – his visage Eze 45:17 – he shall prepare Dan 9:26 – Messiah Mat 17:23 – they shall Joh 11:52 – not Joh 12:24 – if Joh 19:30 – It is Joh 19:42 – laid Joh 20:9 – that Act 8:33 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou {i} hast brought me into the dust of death.
(i) You permitted me to be without all hope of life.