Bible Lexicons

כּוּר a root of doubtful authority in the verb, but signifying as far as can be gathered from its derivatives, to dig, to bore through, like the kindred roots, כָּרָה, אָכַר, קוּר, נָקַר. Compare Arab. كَوْرُ a digging in the earth, and in the Indo-Germanic languages, Sanscr. k’hûr, to cleave, to dig. Hence מְכֵרָה μάχαιρα, a sword, so called from its piercing, כָּר executioner, also מְכוּרָה, מְכוֹרָה a place where metals are dug, hence native place.

Very many interpreters suppose the verb itself to be found in a passage much discussed as relating to the Messiah [see the note], Psalms 22:17, where David, pursued by the soldiers of Saul, says, “Dogs have surrounded me, the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me, כָּאֲרִי יָדי וְרַגְלַי.” To give my own opinion, I now regard it as the most simple exposition to retain the ordinary signification of the words, and to translate “as lions” they gape upon, or threaten [this would be a strange ellipsis], “my hands and my feet,” i.e. they threaten to tear all my members. The form כָּאֲכּרִי is ὡς ὁ λέων, i.e. as lions, like Isaiah 38:13 and to threaten, to gape upon, or a similar verb may be understood in this member of the sentence from the foregoing context, by the ordinary figure zeugma. [But no such idea is comprised in what goes before.]

However, all the ancient interpreters have taken כארי as a verb, and this may be defended, if we regard כָּאֲרִי a participle of Kal, formed in the Chaldee manner (קוּם part. קָאֵם) and plural, for כָּאֲרִים (like מִנִּי Psalms 45:9, for מִנִּים): although it would be cause for surprise if we were to find two grammatical forms of such extreme rarity joined in one word (compare Lehrg. 401, 523). If this opinion were adopted, we should render, piercing, digging through, my hands and my feet, that is, my enemies (who are to be understood by the dogs) with their darts and weapons on every side: and there is no need to remark that even these things apply as suitably as possible to David [?], to whom this psalm is ascribed in the title, and that at least there is no need to understand them of Christ as affixed to the cross [?]. A verb of piercing in the sense of wounding (compare חָלַל and Arab. حَزَّ to perforate, to wound) is most aptly applied to hostile weapons; and hands and feet are used poetically for all the members and the whole body [?] (compare Hesiod. 114). LXX. ὤρυξαν (the verb which they use elsewhere for כָּרָה, נָקַר). Vulg. foderunt. Syr. ܒܙܥܰܘ.-Aqu. Symm. in the Hexapla and Jerome (according to the reading vinxerunt [which is a mere erratum]) give the word the signification of binding, tying, which is defensible on philological grounds (and this ought not to have been denied by Hengstenberg, Christologie d. A. T. i. p. 180), compare كَارَ I. V. to fold round a head-dress, كَوْرُ a wreath, a head-dress, but it is much less suitable to the context.-Aquila in his first edition ᾔσχυναν, they disfigured, i.e. they stained with blood, prob. ascribing to the root כְּאַר the signification of the Aramean כְּעַר.-Farther, that כארי was commonly regarded as a verb is shown by the reading of two MSS. כארו (כָּאֲרוּ) for כָּרוּ.

[Note. The remarks of Gesenius are sufficient to shew any unprejudiced reader that כָּאֲרִי in this passage, does not mean, as a lion; it is to be observed, 1st. That all the ancient versions take it as part of a verb, and most of them in the sense of to pierce; and this, as Gesenius has shewn, is explicable with the present reading. 2nd, The Jews themselves (see the Masora on Numbers 24:9.), expressly disclaim the meaning of “as a lion.” 3rd, Ben Chaim states that, in the best MSS., he found a ק׳ and כ׳ on the word כארי, כארו. 4th, כָּאֲרוּ is actually the reading of some MSS. (see De Rossi). The sense will be just the same whether we read כארי as a participle pl., or whether we read כארו pret. of the verb; the latter is apparently preferable. We may either take it from כּוּר with א inserted, or from a kindred root כאר (compare ראם and רוּם). It is hardly needful to state how certain it is that the Psalm applies to Christ and not to David; the authority of the New Test. proves this, even if it had not been clear from the contents of the Psalm.]

II.

כּוּר or