An Examination of Psalm 22:17(16)

By: Menachem

Here is a comparison of a Jewish Translation and a Christian Translation

Jewish Translation: Psalms 22:17 For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers encompassed me, like a lion are my hands and my feet.

Christian Translation: Psalms 22:16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. (KJV)

The passage in Hebrew:

כִּי סְבָבוּנִי כְּלָבִים עֲדַת מְרֵעִים, הִקִּיפוּנִי כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי.

The word that comes into question in this verse is the word K'ari כארי meaning Like a Lion. The distinctive translations have been highlighted in the verses of both. So the question is which one is correct? This problem can easily be resolved by examining other texts and other instances in which the word K’ari show up in the Tanakh. Here the Preposition (Ka-כ) the Hebrew equivalent to like/as is used to give the word (Ari-ארי) a preposition and a reading as "Like a lion." Coming from the word Aryah(אריה) meaning “lion.”The Hebrew word K'ari is found elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) Numbers 23:24 (כארי ) [and as a young Lion], Numbers24:9 (כארי) [like a lion], Isaiah 38:13(כארי) [like a lion], Ezekiel 22:25(כארי) [like a lion] and Psalms 22:17[16] (כארי) [They Pierced]. All of which are highlighted red are rendered correctly by the KJV translators the one that is blue is not rendered correctly.

With that being said lets now examine other textual witnesses to this particular Psalm.

Let’s look at the Aramaic Targum to Psalm 22:17 in the Aramaic first:

מטול ארום דאחזרו עלי רשיע סיעת חייבין דמתילין לכלביא סגיעי כינשת מבאישין אקפוני נכתין היך כאריא אידי ורגלי:

This translates as follows:

“Because the wicked have surrounded me, who are like many dogs, a gathering of evildoers have closed me in, biting like a lion my hands and my feet.”

The Targum of the Psalms bears witness to the accurate reading of the Psalm in Hebrew the Psalm actually reads “Like a Lion” here as it does in the Hebrew.

Now that we know the Targum Identifies with the Hebrew text lets now examine the Psalm version from Nechal Hever (DSS).

In the Hebrew of the Nechal Hever version of this psalm we find it to read:

עדת מרעים הקיפוני כארי ידיה ורגלי:

Many Christians want to read the word כארי as if it read כארו. The reason for this is because of the somewhat enlongated Yod(י) that appears in the text and because they want the word “pierced” to appear there so bad they can taste it.. The only problem with this rendering is that they are rendering the word as a non-existent word. The word K’aru (כארו) does not exist in the Hebrew language as a valid word. So there in lays the biggest problem of them all, a made up word that has the meaning of “pierced” assigned by Christians…hrm…not a very stable position to take on the subject matter.

The another Christian position on the word כארי is that they maintain that the original word is the word Karu(כרו). They base this claim off of the fraudulent claim that the Nechal hever psalms render it as K’aru and not K’ari. The only problem with this is that they hit a dead end with this claim as well. The term Karu(כרו) means simply “to dig” as in “dig a ditch.” The term is not used anywhere in the Hebrew bible with any hint, connotation, nor even an inference that the word means “pierce.” It is always used to mean “to dig [a ditch].” In the Septuagint the reading is ωρυξαν (oruksan), which stems from the root ορύσσω (orusso) meaning “to dig” as in to dig a trench” this is rendered thus according to Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon Which does not list this particular word as meaning pierced.

Many Christian arguments that are usually not mentioned by your typical missionary but is good to know anyway would be the claim that in the Olden days of the Hebrew language sometimes an Aleph was added to a Hebrew word. This is true sometimes one was added to a word. Christian missionaries then proceed to claim that that is what happened to the word Karu(כרו) in this particular instance. They claim that an Aleph(א) was added to this word to produce the word K’aru(כארו). That might hold up if you didn’t know Hebrew. There is no known occurrence of this ever happening to the word Karu in all of Jewish literature. While some words do show this happening to them it is erroneous to think that happened with this word especially when the only thing they present is an assumption that this has occurred.

The above given at Nechal hever also has a Peculiarity about it. The thing that is peculiar is the rendering of the word for “my hands.” In the Hebrew Tanakh the word for “my hands” is rendered as ידי which is masculine in gender and in the first person. The one at Nechal Hever is rendered as ידיה and is in the third person and is feminine in gender. Anyone who has a working knowledge of Hebrew that in most cases a “Heh” ending on a Plural noun makes it feminine in Gender. So a more accurate rendering of the Nechal Hever version in English would be:

“Like a Lion are her hands and my feet.”

Placing this Nechal Hever version to jesus would be a futile attempt since Christians would have to overcome the obstacles I listed above.

No one really knows why Christians choose to render this psalm incorrectly maybe they have this thing about proving jesus in the Tanakh. They try to render this word to mean pierced when it just doesn’t have this meaning. The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) uses several words for pierced those including "Khadar (חדר)" in Ezekiel 21:19, "Nakav (נקב)" in Hab 3:14, "palakh (פלח)" in Job 16:13, and "ratza (רצע)" Exodus 21:6. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that none of these words even resembles the term K'ari(כארי)...So in conclusion I would like to give just a brief overview of what was discussed above. Above we discussed the various usages of the term K’ari (כארי) and how it was incorrectly translated by the KJV and other Christian versions to try and fool the reader. We examined other textual witnesses such as the ancient Aramaic Targum to this Psalm to show that the reading of “Like a Lion” is the best and most accurate of the renderings.
We also examined the textual rendering of the Psalm found at Nechal Hever. We exposed its true rendering and why it is impossible for it to have this rendering as well as the attributation of this particular version to that of jesus. So now we can safely say that the Psalm does not say “pierced” but in fact says “like a lion.”

Isaiah 9:5[6] about what?

By: Menachem

I was going over some of the "prophecies" that christians point to to "prove" that jesus is the messiah. This one came across as particularly weak so I would like to take a look at it and get everyone's opinion on the matter. The Christian position is that Isaiah 9:5[6] points to everything that J-sus is or that is in his name. It is claimed by christians that he is "the eternal father", "the Mighty G-d" and "the prince of peace." along with "wonderful counsellor." Lets post the Hebrew so that we can see what is going on here

The Hebrew reads:
כִּי-יֶלֶד יֻלַד-לָנוּ בֵּן נִתַּן-לָנוּ וַתְּהִי הַמִּשְרָה עַל-שִכְמוֹ וַיִּקְרָא שְמוֹ פֶּלֶא יּוֹעֵץ אֵל גִּבּוֹר אֲבִי-עַד שַר-שָלוֹם

A Jewish Translation from the Hebrew:

Isaiah 9:5. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government is upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called "wonderful counselor, mighty G-d, eternal father, a peaceful ruler."


For the sake of argument the KJV reads:
Isaiah 9:6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (KJV)

The differences are very visible between my translation from the Hebrew and what the KJV renders. The main differences being the usage of the word "the" improperly and the tanslation of "Sar Shalom." Now in order for the terms to read "the mighty G-d,The everlasting father, or The Prince of Peace(?)" the particle Heh ( ה ) would have to appear in each of the terms in hebrew which it does not. So saying "The....." would be gramatically incorrect to say the least.So what is in this person's name. I submit that all of the terms but the last one "Sar Shalom" are not part of the person's name but are descriptions of G-d himself. for evidence I give the Aramaic targum of Yonatan to Isaiah to clarify the misconception of the person's name:

Targum Yonatan:
אַמַר נְבִיָא לְבֵית דָוִד אֲרֵי רָבֵי אִיתְיְלִיד לָנָא בַּר אִתְיְהַב לָנָא וְקַבֵּל אוֹרַיְתָא עֲלוֹהִי לְמַטְרָהּ וְאִתְקְרֵי שְמֵיהּ מִן קַדָם מַפְלִיא עֵצָה אֳלָהָא נִבָּרָא קַיָם לְעַלְמַיָא מְשִיחָא דִשְלָמָא יַסְגֵי עֲלָנָא בְּיוֹמוֹהִי

Translation:
The Prophet said to the House of David, For a Child is born to us, to us a son is given; and he will accept the Torah upon himself to observe it, and his name shall be called before the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty G-d, who exists forever, “The anointed one in who’s days peace will increase upon us.”

From the Targum we can tell that the terms "Pele yo'etz ( פֶּלֶא יּוֹעֵץ )," "El gibbor ( אֵל גִּבּוֹר )," "Avi-Ad ( אֲבִי-עַד )" were never meant to be human attributes but that of G-d's himself. the only thing that was left to the child mentioned was "Sar-Shalom ( שַר-שָלוֹם )" rendered correctly as "Peaceful Ruler." The Targum calls this person "the anointed one in who's days peace will increase upon us." the Targum makes a careful play on the words "Sar-Shalom" trying to place it as a future King who will bring peace in his days.

I happen to like Radak and Rashi's view of this being King Hezekiah and how he was this peaceful ruler or rather how peace increased in his days as the Targum put it.

Rashi was regarded saying:

כי ילד יולד לנו. אע"פ שאחז רשע הוא בנו הנולד לו זה כמה שנים להיות לנו תחתיו למלך צדיק יהיה ותהיה משרת הקב"ה ועולו על שכמו שיהיה עוסק בתורה ושומר מצות ויטה שכם למשאו של הקב"ה ויקרא שמו הקב"ה שהוא מפליא עצה ואל גבור ואבי עד, קרא שמו של חזקיהו שר שלום כי שלום ואמת יהיה בימיו:

Radak said as thus:

כי ילד ילד. זה אמר על חזקיהו לפי שבימי מלכותו היתה התשועה הזאת לישראל שנגף מחנה אשור, כאלו אמר זה יהיה בזכות הילד שילד לנו:

Targum Yonantan to Isaiah 53

Targum Yonatan to Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12

The text of the targum will be given above the translation so to avoid any confusion and footnotes are provided in areas for direction and explanation if needed. The purpose of this is to give the reader a knowledge of what this Targum actually says and who or what Isaiah 53 is about. See for yourself Israel is the topic. Have Fun!

הָא יַצלַח עַבדִי מְשִיחָא יִראַם וְיִסגֵי וְיִתקַף לַחדָא׃

52:13”Behold my anointed servant shall prosper, he shall be be raised up in praise and increase, and shall be very strong.”

דַהְוָה כְמָא דְסַבַרוּ לֵיה בֵית יִשׂרָאֵל יוֹמִין סַגִיאִין חְשוֹך בֵינֵי עַמְמַיָא חִזוְהוֹן וְזִיוְהוֹן מִבְנֵי אְנָשָא׃

52:14. ”Just as the House of Israel had hoped for this many days, Their appearences were very dark among the peoples; and their aspects were beyond that of humanity(lit. sons of men).”

מַלכִין כֵין יְבַדַר עַמְמִין סַגִיאִין עְלוֹהִי יִשתְקוּן יְשַוֹון יַדהוֹן עַל פוּמְהוֹן אְרֵי דְלָא אִשתַעִיאוּ לְהוֹן חְזוֹ וּדלָא שְמַעוּ אִסתַכַלוּ׃

52:15. ”Kings shall disperse him among many peoples, they shall be silent because of him, they shall place their hands over their mouths; for things that have not been told to them they will see, and that which they have not heard they will understand”[1]


דְרָע גְבוּרְתָא דַיוי מַן הֵימֵין לִבסוֹרְתַנָא דָא וּתקוֹף כִדֵין עַל מַן אִתגְלִיאַת׃

53:1. ”Who will believe our report? And to whom has the strength of the arm of Hashem revealed to.”[2]

דְפָרַן וְיִתרַבַא צַדִיקַיָא קֳדָמוֹהִי הָא כְלַבלַבִין וּכאִילָן דִמשַלַח שוּרשוֹהִי עַל נִגדִין דְמַיִין כֵין תוֹלְדָת קוּדשָא בְאַרעָא דַהֲוָת צָרִיכָה לֵיה לָא יִסגְיָן וְלָא אֵימְתֵיה אֵימַת הִדיוֹט וִיהֵי חַזוֵיה חוּלָא חִזוֵיה זִיו קוּדשָא זִיוֵיה דְכָל דְיִחזֵינֵיה יִסתַכַל בֵיה׃

53:2. “And the rightous will be lifted upbefore him, and behold, like plants which sprout and like a tree which spreads out its roots next to streams of water, so to will holy generations increase upon the land which needs him; His appearence is not a common appearence and his fear is not an ordinary fear, and his intelligence will be holy intelligence[3], such that everyone who looks at him will be considerate of him.”


כָל בְכֵין יְהֵי לְבוּסרָן וְיִפסוּק יְקָר מַלכְוָתָא יְהוֹן חַלָשִין וְדָווַן הָא כַאְנָש כֵיבִין לְמַרעִין וּכמָא דַהֲוָת מְסַלְקָא אַפֵי שְכִינְתָא וּמזָמַן מִנַנָא בְסִירִין וְלָא חְשִיבִין׃

53:3“Contempt and cease will be for all kingdoms in their glory; they will faint and mourn, behold as a man of sorrows and appointed for sicknesses as when the face of Shekinah( I.e. G-d) was taken aways from us, they are despised and not esteemed.”


בְדִילֵיה בְכֵין עַל חוֹבַנָא הוּא יִבעֵי וַעְוָיָתַנָא יִשתַבקָן וַאְנַחנָא חְשִיבִין כְתִישִין מַחָן מִן ק יוי וּמעֻנַן׃

53:4. ”Then he will beseech us concerning our sins and our iniquities will be forgiven upon his request,[4] They we were esteemed wounded, smitten before G-d and afflicted.”[5]


בְחוֹבַנָא אִתמְסַר וְהוּא יִבנֵי בֵית מַקדְשָא דְאִיתַחַל עְלַנָא בַעְוָיָתַנָא וּבאֻלפָנֵיה שְלָמָא יִסגֵי וּבִידִנתִינוֹהִי לְפִתגָמוֹהִי חוֹבַנָא יִשתַבקוּן לַנָא׃

53:5. ”And he will build the Temple which was profaned by our sins, and handed over for our iniquities, and by his teaching his peace will increase upon us in that we should attach ourselves to his word so that our sin will be forgiven.” [6]

לָקֳבֵיל אוֹרחֵיה גְלֵינָא כוּלַנָא כְעָנָא אִתבַדַרנָא גְבַר וּמִן קֻ יוי הְוָת רַעְוָא לְמִשבַק חוֹבֵי כוּלַנָא בְדִילֵיה׃


53:6. “All of us like sheep have scattered, we have gone into dispersion, everyone went his own way; and before Hashem it was his pleasure to forgive all of us upon his request.[7]”

פוּמֵיה בָעֵי וְהוּא מִיתָבַב וְעַד לָא פָתַח מִתקַבַל תַקִיפֵי עַמְמַיָא כְאִימְרָא לְנִכסְתָא יִמסַר דִקֳדָם גָזְזַהָא שָתְקָא וְלֵית לְקִבלֵיה וּכרַחלָא דְפָתַח פוּמֵיה וּממַלֵיל מִלָא׃


53:7 “He requests and he is answered and before he opens his mouth he is accepted; the strong among the people will be handed over like sheep to the slaughter, and like an ewe to the shearers is dumb, so there is not one in front of him who opens his mouth and speaks a word.”[8]


גָלְוָתַנָא פְרִישָן וּמִפוֹרעָנוּ יְקָרֵיב מִיִסוּרִין אְרֵי דְיִתעַבדָן לַנָא בְיוֹמוֹהִי מַן יִכוֹל לְאִשתְעָאָה יַעדֵי שוּלטָן עַמְמַיָא מֵאַרעָא דְיִשׂרָאֵל חוֹבִין דְחָבוּ עַמִי עַד לְוָתְהוֹן יִמטֵי׃

53:8"From bonds and retribution he will bring our dispersed near. Who will be able to count the wonders done in his days. For he will take away the dominion of the land of the peoples, to Israel, the sins of my people will be cast upon him.”


נִכסַיָא וְיִמסַר יָת רַשִיעַיָא לְגֵיהִנָם וְיָת עַתִירֵי דַאְנַסוּ בְמוֹתָא דְאַבדָנָא בְדִיל דְלָא יִתקַייְמוּן חִטאָה וְלָא יְמַלְלוּן נִכלִין עָבְדֵי בְפוּמְהוֹן׃

53:9. “The wicked will be taken to Gehennom and those with rich possessions will be robbed to the death with corruption, lest those who commit sin establish and speak of their possessions with their mouths.”


שְאָרָא וּמִן קֳדָם יוי הְוָת רַעְוָא לְמִצרַף וּלדַכָאָה יָת דְעַמֵיה בְדִיל לְנַקָאָה מֵחוֹבִין נַפשְהוֹן יִחזוֹן מְשִיחְהוֹן יִסגוֹן בְנִין וּבנָן יוֹרְכוּן יוֹמִין בְמַלכוּת וְעָבְדֵי אוֹרָיתָא דַיוי בִרעוּתֵיה יַצלְחוּן׃


53:10."Yet before HaShem it was His pleasure to cleanse and refine the remnant of his people, in order to purify their soul from their transgressions; so that they will see the kingdom of their Messiah, sons and daughters shall increase for those who practice the Torah of HaShem and they shall have prolonged days and prosper in his pleasure”


בְפוֹרעָנוּת מִשִעבוּד עַמְמַיָא יְשֵיזֵיב נַפשְהוֹן יִחזוֹן יְזַכֵי סָנְאֵיהוֹן יִסבְעוּן מִבִזַת מַלכֵיהוֹן בְחָכמְתֵיה זַכָאִין בְדִיל לְשַעבָדָא סַגִיאִין לְאוֹרָיתָא וְעַל חוֹבֵיהוֹן הוּא יִבעֵי׃

53:11 “From the slavery among the other peoples their soul will be delivered, their adversaries shall see their retribution. They will be satistfied with plunder from the other kings and through his wisdom many will be subject to the Torah and he will beseech concerning their sins and see to it that the innocent are counted as innocent.”


עַמְמִין סַגִיאִין וְיָת נִכסֵי בְכֵין אְפַלֵיג לֵיה בִיזַת דִמסַר לְמוֹתָא כַרכִין תַקִיפִין יְפַלֵיג עְדָאָה חְלָף עַל נַפשֵיה וְיָת מָרוֹדַיָא שַעבֵיד לְאוֹרָיתָא וְהוּא יִשתְבֵיק חוֹבִין יִבעֵי וּלמָרוֹדַיָא בְדִילֵיה׃

53:12. "Then I will divide him the plunder of many peoples, and he shall divide the spoils, the possesions of the mighty fortresses; because he exposed his soul to death and subjected those who rebelled [againsts G-d], to the Torah. Yet he will beseech many for their sins and those who rebelled shall be forgiven.”

[1] The prophet concludes his speech with this verse.
[2] The Gentile Kings begin their speech with this verse.
[3] I.e. Knowledge of the Torah
[4] The people will come to the Jews and the Jews will ask G-d to forgive their sins and iniquities
[5] Speech by Gentile kings ends in this verse.
[6] The Prophet speaks on behalf of Israel or Israel is speaking as a whole. The speaker takes over in this verse and continues to the end of the chapter.
[7] Wording of Aramaic unclear. “his request” implies the prophet’s request to G-d to forgive the people of Israel.
[8] As a condition of our forgiveness the Jews must endure exile as explained in verses 9 though 12