12. Many [foes like] bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have hedged me in. [Ezek. 39:18.]
13. Against me they opened their mouths wide, like a ravening and roaring lion.
14. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is softened [with anguish] and melted down within me.
15. My strength is dried up like a fragment of clay pottery; [with thirst] my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You have brought me into the dust of death. [John 19:28.]
16. For [like a pack of] dogs they have encompassed me; a company of evildoers has encircled me, they pierced my hands and my feet. [Isa. 53:7; John 19:37.]
17. I can count all my bones; [the evildoers] gaze at me. [Luke 23:27, 35.]
18. They part my clothing among them and cast lots for my raiment (a long, shirtlike garment, a seamless undertunic). [John 19:23, 24.])
19. But be not far from me, O Lord; O my Help, hasten to aid me!
20. Deliver my life from the sword, my dear life [my only one] from the power of the dog [the agent of execution].
21. Save me from the lion's mouth; for You have answered me [kindly] from the horns of the wild oxen.