Psalms 22:16

Dogs. Men resembling ferocious, snarling dogs have surrounded him, as it were, in a pack, intent upon his life. Oriental cities were noted for packs of hungry dogs, which often feasted on unburied bodies of the dead (see 1 Kings 14:11; cf. Ps. 59:6, 14, 15). The psalmist further heightens the ferocity of the circumstances by adding dogs to the lion and the bulls of Bashan (see on vs. 12, 13).

They pierced. Heb. ke’ari, which may be translated “as a lion,” as in Isa. 38:13, the only other occurrence of the form in the OT. The thought of the sentence then becomes, “Like a lion they surround my hands and my feet.” Ke’ari cannot correctly be translated “they pierced.” It is possible that the word is misspelled, and that the translators of the ancient versions, the LXX, the Syriac, and the Vulgate, preserved the true reading in their rendering “they pierced.” By these words the Saviour foretold the treatment He was to receive. Compare John 20:25–27.