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Psalms 22:1–11, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Psalms 22:1–11
Forsaken cry becomes public praise: Abandonment, ancestral trust, and public shame
An Israelite sufferer asks why God is far
The voice is not a narrator and not yet a later congregation's memory. It is a person crying, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Why so far from saving, from the words of roaring? By day he cries and is not answered; by night he is not silent.
God is holy, enthroned on Israel's praises. The fathers trusted, were delivered, cried, and were not ashamed. That ancestral success is the wound: this speaker is in the same God, without the same rescue yet. New Testament reuse around Jesus is later reception. It must not erase this Jewish lament as if the psalm were only a coded scene.
A worm in public, and a God who took him from the womb
He is a worm and not a man, scorned by people, despised by the people. All who see him mock, shoot out the lip, wag the head: he trusted in the LORD, let the LORD deliver him, if the LORD delights in him.
Against the mockery he recalls birth: God took him from the womb, kept him on his mother's breasts, was his God from the mother's belly. The plea is therefore: be not far, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. Shame is described, not prescribed. The unit stays in abandonment and memory. It does not diagnose the sufferer, and it sets no hour when the farness must end.
How this should shape us
Stay with the forsaken cry before you rush to later fulfillment. Do not shame a person God feels far from, and do not treat ancestral stories of rescue as proof that this pain is earned.
Teach it back
Explain Psalms 22:1–11 in your own words. Name the poetic voice and movement, trace its place in Psalm 22 and Book I, identify one exact source control or uncertainty, and reject one use the passage does not authorize.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do responsible readings differ?
Best judgment: The psalm first voices an Israelite sufferer's lament and praise; New Testament reuse around Jesus is reception and fulfillment for Christians, not erasure of Jewish meaning.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Psalms 22:1–11, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 22:1–11
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 22:1–11.
Official NET Bible Psalm 22 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 22:1–11
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Enter the Bible Psalms course, Introductory Issues: individual and communal lament, from lament to praise, and Bible in the World; applied to Psalms 22:1–11
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 22 for Psalms 22:1–11
Supports: Communication safeguards against romanticizing, sensationalizing, diagnosing, blaming, or simplifying despair, isolation, death wishes, and severe loss; not exegesis.
WHO, Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023, quick guide p. xiii and dos and don'ts pp. 11–16; applied only to modern safety-aware presentation of Psalms 22:1–11
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 22:1–11, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 22:1–11
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 22:1–11.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 22 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 22:1–11
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗modern scholarly book course
Psalms course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Fred Gaiser; revised by Nicholas Schaser
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, revised May 2024
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Psalms course, Introductory Issues: individual and communal lament, from lament to praise, and Bible in the World; applied to Psalms 22:1–11
Open the Enter the Bible Psalms course ↗ancient greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Psalms
Albert Pietersma
International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies; Oxford University Press, 2009
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
Exact location: NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 22 for Psalms 22:1–11
Open NETS Psalms ↗public health communication guidance
Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023
World Health Organization
World Health Organization, 2023
Supports: Communication safeguards against romanticizing, sensationalizing, diagnosing, blaming, or simplifying despair, isolation, death wishes, and severe loss; not exegesis.
Exact location: WHO, Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023, quick guide p. xiii and dos and don'ts pp. 11–16; applied only to modern safety-aware presentation of Psalms 22:1–11
Open the WHO communication guide ↗