Psalm 22:16
16 For dogs [keleb] have
compassed [cabab] me: the assembly [`edah] of the wicked [ra`a`] have
inclosed [naqaph] me: they pierced [karah] ['ariy] my hands [yad] and my feet. [regel]KJV-Interlinear
16 For
dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced
my hands and my feet. NASB
Never in the history of
the Jewish people, has crucifixion been used as a form of execution. That was a Roman method.
And yet the Messiah, who
came out of Israel, was rejected by Israel, and executed in Roman style.
Nailing the hands and
feet was the common method of crucifixion.
At times the hands and feet were merely bound, but the more common
formal form of execution was by nailing to the cross. The cross was used not as a symbol of a religion,
but because it was an easy form to build and erect, one pole in the ground and
one horizontal beam for the arms. It was
an effective but cruel method of execution.
And who was it that
rejected Christ? He was surrounded by
the wicked, the dogs of humanity.
Dogs, is a reference to the
wild and stray dogs that were typically untamed, cruel, unclean, and
savage. They were the filth of the
animals that co-mingled in with society.
And they are an appropriate description of humanity in its rejection and
attitude toward Jesus Christ.
Surrounded, means on all
sides, or better stated, from all quarters.
There was no support for Christ in that all of humanity was sinful and
thus in need of a cure for its sin.
Christ was that solution, and in order to complete his mission, Jesus
had to be rejected, strangely enough, by the very ones He was intending to
save.
