Psalms 22:17

Tell - To number; count.

I may tell all my bones - This may refer to the violent extension of his body when the whole of its weight hung upon the nails which attached his hands to the transverse beam of the cross. The body being thus extended, the principal bones became prominent, and easily discernible.

I may tell all my bones - That is, I may count them. They are so prominent, so bare, that I can see them and count their number. The idea here is that of emaciation from continued suffering or from some other cause. As applied to the Redeemer, it would denote the effect of long protracted suffering and anxiety on his frame, as rendering it crushed, weakened, emaciated. Compare the notes at Isaiah 52:14; Isaiah 53:2-3. No one can prove that an effect such as is here referred to may not have been produced by the sufferings of the Redeemer.

They look and stare upon me - That is, either my bones - or, my enemies that stand around me. The most obvious construction would refer it to the former - to his bones - as if they stood out prominently and stared him in the face. Rosenmuller understands it in the latter sense, as meaning that his enemies gazed with wonder on such an object. Perhaps this, on the whole, furnishes the best interpretation, as there is something unnatural in speaking of a man's own bones staring or gazing upon him, and as the image of his enemies standing and looking with wonder on one so wretched, so crushed, so broken, is a very striking one. This, too, will better agree with the statement in Isaiah 52:14, "Many were astonished at thee;" and Isaiah 53:2-3, "He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him;" "we hid, as it were, our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." It accords also better with the statement in the following verse; "they," that is, the same persons referred to, "part my garments amoung them."

22:17 May tell - By my being stretched out upon the cross.