Psalm 22:7

All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Laugh me to scorn.—LXX., ἐξεμυκτήρισάν, the verb used by St. Luke in his description of the crucifixion (Luke 23:35).

Shoot out the lip.—Literally, open with the lip (Psalm 35:21; Job 16:10). We use the expression, “curl the lip.”

Benson Commentary

Psalm 22:7. All they that see me laugh me to scorn — Instead of pitying, or helping, they deride and insult over me: such is their inhumanity; they shoot out the lip — They gape with their mouths, and put forth their tongues in mockery; they shake the head — Another custom of scoffers. This and the next verse are applied to Christ, (Matthew 27:39; Matthew 27:43,) in whom they were literally fulfilled when he hung upon the cross; and the priests and elders used the very words that had been put into their mouths by the spirit of prophecy so long before. “O the wisdom and knowledge of God,” exclaims Dr. Horne, “and the infatuation and blindness of man! The same are too often the sentiments of those who live in times when the church and her righteous cause, with their advocates, are under the clouds of persecution, and seem to sink beneath the displeasure of the powers of the world. But such do not believe, or do not consider, that in the Christian economy death is followed by a resurrection, when it will appear that God forsaketh not them that are his, but they are preserved for ever.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:1-10 The Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, testifies in this psalm, clearly and fully, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. We have a sorrowful complaint of God's withdrawings. This may be applied to any child of God, pressed down, overwhelmed with grief and terror. Spiritual desertions are the saints' sorest afflictions; but even their complaint of these burdens is a sign of spiritual life, and spiritual senses exercised. To cry our, My God, why am I sick? why am I poor? savours of discontent and worldliness. But, Why hast thou forsaken me? is the language of a heart binding up its happiness in God's favour. This must be applied to Christ. In the first words of this complaint, he poured out his soul before God when he was upon the cross, Mt 27:46. Being truly man, Christ felt a natural unwillingness to pass through such great sorrows, yet his zeal and love prevailed. Christ declared the holiness of God, his heavenly Father, in his sharpest sufferings; nay, declared them to be a proof of it, for which he would be continually praised by his Israel, more than for all other deliverances they received. Never any that hoped in thee, were made ashamed of their hope; never any that sought thee, sought thee in vain. Here is a complaint of the contempt and reproach of men. The Saviour here spoke of the abject state to which he was reduced. The history of Christ's sufferings, and of his birth, explains this prophecy.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

All they that see me laugh me to scorn - They deride or mock me. On the word used here - לעג lâ‛ag - see the notes at Psalm 2:4. The meaning here is to mock, to deride, to treat with scorn. The idea of laughing is not properly in the word, nor would that necessarily occur in the treatment here referred to. How completely this was fulfilled in the case of the Saviour, it is not necessary to say. Compare Matthew 27:39, "And they that passed by, reviled him." There is no evidence that this literally occurred in the life of David.

They shoot out the lip - Margin, "open." The Hebrew word - פטר pâṭar - means properly "to split, to burst open;" then, as in this place, it means to open wide the mouth; to stretch the mouth in derision and scorn. See Psalm 35:21, "They opened their mouth wide against me." Job 16:10, "they have gaped upon me with their mouth."

They shake the head - In contempt and derision. See Matthew 27:39, "Wagging their heads."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7, 8. For the Jews used one of the gestures (Mt 27:39) here mentioned, when taunting Him on the cross, and (Mt 27:43) reproached Him almost in the very, language of this passage.

shoot out—or, "open."

the lip—(Compare Ps 35:21).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Laugh me to scorn; instead of pitying or helping, deride me, and insult over me; such is their inhumanity.

They shoot out the lip; they gape with their mouths, and put forth their tongues, in mockery. See Job 16:10 Isaiah 57:4.

They shake the head; another posture of scoffers. See Job 16:4 Psalm 44:14 Isaiah 37:22. This and the next verse are applied to Christ, Matthew 27:39,43.

Saying: this supplement is very usual, and here it is necessary, because the next words are the expressions of his insulting enemies.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

All they that see me laugh me to scorn,.... To the afflicted pity should be shown; but instead or pitying him in his distresses they laughed at him; this must be understood of the soldiers when they had him in Pilate's hall, and of the Jews in general when he hung upon the cross; some particular persons must be excepted, as John the beloved disciple, the mother of our Lord, Mary Magdalene, and some other women, who stood afar off beholding him;

they shoot out the lip; or "open with the lip" (y); they made mouths at him, they put out their lips, or gaped upon him with their mouths, and in a way of sport and pastime made wide mouths and drew out their tongues, as in Job 16:10;

they shake the head, saying; in a way of scorn and derision, as in Lamentations 2:15. This was fulfilled in the Jews, Matthew 27:39.

(y) "hiatum fecerunt labiis suis", Grotius; "they make a mow with their lip", Ainsworth.

Psalm 22:7.(z) Sota, c. 9. sect. 15.

Geneva Study Bible

All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. laugh me to scorn] LXX. ἐξεμυκτήρισαν, the word used by St Luke (Luke 23:35) of the rulers scoffing at Christ. They gape with their lips (Job 16:10; Psalm 35:21); they shake the head (Psalm 109:25; Lamentations 2:15; Job 16:4), gestures partly of contempt, partly of feigned abhorrence. Comp. Matthew 27:39.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - All they that see me laugh me to scorn; ἐξεμυκτήρισάν με, LXX. (comp. Luke 23:35, "The people stood beholding;and the rulers also with them derided him (ἐξεμυκτήριζον)"). They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying (see Matthew 27:39; Mark 15:29: "They that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads," where the expression of the Septuagint is again used). Psalm 22:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 22:7-9)The sufferer complains of the greatness of his reproach, in order to move Jahve, who is Himself involved therein, to send him speedy succour. Notwithstanding his cry for help, he is in the deepest affliction without rescue. Every word of Psalm 22:7 is echoed in the second part of the Book of Isaiah. There, as here, Israel is called a worm, Isaiah 41:14; there all these traits of suffering are found in the picture of the Servant of God, Isaiah 49:7; Isaiah 53:3, cf. Isaiah 50:6, and especially Isaiah 52:14 "so marred was His appearance, that He no longer looked like a man." תּולעת is more particularly the kermes, or cochineal (vermiculus, whence color vermiculi, vermeil, vermiglio); but the point of comparison in the present instance is not the blood-red appearance, but the suffering so utterly defenceless and even ignominious. עם is gen. subj., like גּוי, Isaiah 49:7. Jerome well renders the ἐξουθένωμα λαοῦ of the lxx by abjectio (Tertullian: nullificamen) plebis, not populi. The ἐξεμυκτήρισάν με, by which the lxx translates ילעיגו לי, is used by Luke, Luke 23:35, cf. Luke 16:14, in the history of the Passion; fulfilment and prediction so exactly coincide, that no more adequate expressions can be found in writing the gospel history than those presented by prophecy. In הפטיר בּשׂפה, what appears in other instances as the object of the action (to open the mouth wide, diducere labia), is regarded as the means of its execution; so that the verbal notion being rendered complete has its object in itself: to make an opening with the mouth, cf. פּער בּפה, Job 16:10, נתן בּקול Psalm 68:34; Ges. 138, 1, rem. 3. The shaking of the head is, as in Psalm 109:25, cf. Psalm 44:15; Psalm 64:9, a gesture of surprise and astonishment at something unexpected and strange, not a προσνεύειν approving the injury of another, although נוּע, נוּד, נוּט, νεύ-ω, nu-t-o, nic-to, neigen, nicken, all form one family of roots. In Psalm 22:9 the words of the mockers follow without לאמר. גּל is not the 3 praet. (lxx, cf. Matthew 27:43) like אור, בּושׁ; it is not only in Piel (Jeremiah 11:20; Jeremiah 20:12, where גּלּיתי equals גּלּלתּי, Ew. 121, a) that it is transitive, but even in Kal; nor is it inf. absol. in the sense of the imperative (Hitz., Bttch.), although this infinitive form is found, but always only as an inf. intens. (Numbers 23:25; Ruth 2:16, cf. Isaiah 24:19); but, in accordance with the parallels Psalm 37:5 (where it is written גּול), Proverbs 16:3, cf. Psalm 55:23; 1 Peter 5:7, it is imperat.: roll, viz., thy doing and thy suffering to Jahve, i.e., commit it to Him. The mockers call out this גּל to the sufferer, and the rest they say of him with malicious looks askance. כּי in the mouth of the foes is not confirmatory as in Psalm 18:20, but a conditional ἐάν (in case, provided that).