this, like Symmachus, “they have bound,”[1] after כר, Arab. krr, to twist, lace; but this rendering is improbable since the Hebrew has other words for “to bind,” constringere. On the other hand nothing of any weight can be urged against the rendering of the lxx ὤρυξαν (Peshîto בזעו, Vulg. foderunt, Jer. fixerunt); for (1) even if we do not suppose any special verb כּארוּ ,כּאר can be expanded from כּרוּ (כוּר) = כּרוּ (כּרה) just in the same manner as ראמה, Zec 14:10 from רמה, cf. קאמיּא Dan 7:16. And (2) that כוּר and כּרה can signify not merely to dig out and dig into, engrave, but also to dig through, pierce, is shown, - apart from the derivative מכרה (the similarity of the sound of which to μάχαιρα from the root μαχ, maksh , mraksh, is only accidental), - by the double meaning of the verbs נקר, ὀρύσσειν (e.g., ὀρύσσειν τὸν ἰσθμόν Herod. i. 174), fodere (hastâ); the lxx version of Psa 40:7 would also support this meaning, if κατετρήσω (from κατατιτρᾶν) in that passage had been the original reading instead of κατηρτίσω. If כּארוּ be read, then Psa 22:17, applied to David, perhaps under the influence of the figure of the attacking dogs (Böhl), says that the wicked bored into his hands and feet, and thus have made him fast, so that he is inevitably abandoned to their inhuman desires. The fulfilment in the nailing of the hands and (at least, the binding fast) of the feet of the Crucified One to the cross is clear. This is not the only passage in which it is predicated that the future Christ shall be murderously pierced; but it is the same in Isa 53:5 where He is said to be pierced (מחלל) on account of our sins, and in Zec 12:10, where Jahve describes Himself as ἐκκεντηθείς in Him.
Thus, therefore, the reading כּארוּ might at least have an equal right to be recognised with the present recepta, for which Hupfeld and Hitzig demand exclusive recognition; while Böttcher, - who reads כּארי, and gives this the meaning“
- ↑ Also in Jerome's independent translation the reading vinxerunt is found by the side of fixerunt, just as Abraham of Zante paraphrases it in his paraphrase of the Psalter in rhyme גּם כּארי ידי ורגלי אסרוּ. The want of a verb is too perceptible. Saadia supplies it in a different way “they compass me as a lion, to crush my hands and feet.”
