Psalms 22:7
in Psalms 22All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
All they that see me laugh me to scorn: They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
KJV
All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
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This verse in Psalms 22
Commentary
14 notes on this verseJust as we say that the flesh became [the Word's] very own, in the same way the weakness of that flesh became his very own in an economic appropriation according to the terms of the unification. So, he is "made like his brothers in all things except sin alone." Do not be astonished if we say that he has made the weakness of the flesh his own along with the flesh itself.
This site's exposition
I am a worm
on Psalms 22:6-8
The sufferer is scorned and despised while the fathers of verse 4 were delivered. The mockers in verse 8 dare God to rescue the man who trusts Him, and the chief priests say the same thing at the cross in Matthew 27:43. The Hebrew for worm is tolaath, a grub men tread on.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
"All that saw Me laughed Me to scorn" [Psalm 22:7]. All that saw Me derided Me. "And spoke with the lips, and shook the head." [Matthew 27:39] And they spoke, not with the heart, but with the lips.
"All that saw Me laughed Me to scorn" [Psalm 22:7]. All that saw Me derided Me. "And spoke with the lips, and shook the head." [Matthew 27:39] And they spoke, not with the heart, but with the lips.
A commentator
Clement of RomeClement's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 16 · Written before 99.
proposed
For Christ is of those who are humble-minded, and not of those who exalt themselves over His flock. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sceptre of the majesty of God, did not come in the pomp of pride or arrogance, although He might have done so, but in a lowly condition, as the Holy Spirit had declared regarding Him. For He says, "Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? We have declared [our message] in His presence: He is, as it were, a child, and like a root in thirsty ground; He has no form nor glory, yea, we saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness; but His form was without eminence, yea, deficient in comparison with the [ordinary] form of men. He is a man exposed to stripes and suffering, and acquainted with the endurance of grief: for His countenance was turned away; He was despised, and not esteemed. He bears our iniquities, and is in sorrow for our sakes; yet we supposed that [on His own account] He was exposed to labour, and stripes, and affliction. But He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; [every] man has wandered in his own way; and the Lord has delivered Him up for our sins, while He in the midst of His sufferings opens not His mouth. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before her shearer is dumb, so He opens not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away; who shall declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth. For the transgressions of my people was He brought down to death. And I will give the wicked for His sepulchre, and the rich for His death, because He did no iniquity, neither was guile found in His mouth. And the Lord is pleased to purify him by stripes. […]
The Medieval Church1 voice
"But I." Here he sets forth his passion. And first he proposes the confusion that he suffered. Second, he expounds it, at "All who see me." Third, he assigns its cause, at "For you are." The first part can be read in two ways. In …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
They make mouths at him, make merry over him, and make a jest of his sufferings: They shoot out the lip, they shake their head, saying, This was he that said he trusted God would deliver him; now let him deliver him. David was sometimes taunted for his confidence in God; but in the sufferings of Christ this was literally and exactly fulfilled.
7 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
), where David, as a type of Christ, complains of the very calamitous condition he was in upon many accounts. He complains, and mixes comforts with his complaints; he complains (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
All they that see me laugh me to scorn,....
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
"All they that see me laugh me to scorn." Read the evangelistic narrative of the ridicule endured by the Crucified One, and then consider, in the light of this expression, how it grieved him. The iron entered into his soul. Mockery has for its distinctive description "cruel mockings;" those endured by our Lord were of the most cruel kind. The scornful ridicule of our Lord was universal; all sorts of men were unanimous in the derisive laughter, and vied with each other in insulting him.
"All they that see me laugh me to scorn." Read the evangelistic narrative of the ridicule endured by the Crucified One, and then consider, in the light of this expression, how it grieved him. The iron entered into his soul. Mockery has for its distinctive description "cruel mockings;" those endured by our Lord were of the most cruel kind. The scornful ridicule of our Lord was universal; all sorts of men were unanimous in the derisive laughter, and vied with each other in insulting him. Priests and people, Jews and Gentiles, soldiers and civilians, all united in the general scoff, and that at the time when he was prostrate in weakness and ready to die. Which shall we wonder at the most, the cruelty of man or the love of the bleeding Saviour? How can we ever complain of ridicule after this? "They shoot out the lip, they shake the head." These were gestures of contempt. Pouting, grinning, shaking of the head, thrusting out of the tongue, and other modes of derision were endured by our patient Lord; men made faces at him before whom angels vail their faces and adore. The basest signs of disgrace which disdain could devise were maliciously cast at him. They punned upon his prayers, they made matter for laughter of his sufferings, and set him utterly at nought. Herbert sings of our Lord as saying, — Shame tears my soul, my body many a wound; Sharp nails pierce this, but sharper that confound; Reproaches which are free, while I am bound. Was ever grief like mine?"
Laugh me to scorn - They utterly despised me; set me at naught; treated me with the utmost contempt. Laugh to scorn is so completely antiquated that it should be no longer used; derided, despised, treated with contempt, are much more expressive and are still in common use. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head - This is applied by St. Matthew, to the conduct of the Jews towards our Lord, when he hung upon the cross; as is also the following verse. But both are primarily true of the insults which David suffered from Shimei and others during the rebellion of Absalom; and, as the cases were so similar, the evangelist thought proper to express a similar conduct to Jesus Christ by the same expressions. These insults our Lord literally received, no doubt David received the same.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
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 Psa 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 Mat 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 Psa 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 Mat 27:39, “Wagging their heads.”
Modern Voices1 voice
Psalm 22 reads as if it was dictated, first person singular, as He hung on the cross, even though it was written 700 years earlier.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| רֹ֭אַי | roai | [those who] see me | H7200 → | 1300 times |
| יַלְעִ֣גוּ | yaligu | they mock | H3932 → | 18 times |
| לִ֑י | li | <to> me | ||
| יַפְטִ֥ירוּ | yaftiru | they make a separation | H6362 → | |
| בְ֝שָׂפָ֗ה | vesafah | with a lip | H8193 → | 176 times |
| יָנִ֥יעוּ | yaniu | they shake | H5128 → | 40 times |
| רֹֽאשׁ׃ | rosh | a head | H7218 → | 599 times |
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
רֹ֭אַי[those who] see me
roaiH7200 →1300 times
יַלְעִ֣גוּthey mock
yaliguH3932 →18 times
לִ֑י<to> me
li
יַפְטִ֥ירוּthey make a separation
yaftiruH6362 →
בְ֝שָׂפָ֗הwith a lip
vesafahH8193 →176 times
יָנִ֥יעוּthey shake
yaniuH5128 →40 times
רֹֽאשׁ׃a head
roshH7218 →599 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 109:25I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
it leads to
- Psalms 69:19–20
You know my reproach, my shame and disgrace. All my adversaries are before You.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 22:6–7
But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.
- Romans 15:3
For even Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written: “The insults of those who insult You have fallen on Me.”
- Psalms 69:19–20
Through
Luke 23:11And even Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked Him. Dressing Him in a fine robe, they sent Him back to Pilate.
it leads to
- Mark 15:16–20
Then the soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called the whole company together.
- Matthew 27:27–30
Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company around Him.
- Mark 15:16–20
Through
Mark 15:29And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
it leads to
- Mark 14:58
“We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this man-made temple, and in three days I will build another that is made without hands.’”
- Psalms 109:25
I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
- John 2:18–22
On account of this, the Jews demanded, “What sign can You show us to prove Your authority to do these things?”
- Mark 14:58
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
On this verse
About Psalms
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 22; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 1; Chuck Missler, How Can We Be Sure? (article); Clement of Rome, Clement's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 16; Cyril of Alexandria, ON THE UNITY OF CHRIST; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.