For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
Ver. 16. For dogs have compassed me] That is, men of mean rank; opposed to bulls and lions, i.e. great ones, and interpreted in the next words, the assembly of the wicked, the rude rabble, and of rancorous disposition, Job 30:1 Proverbs 26:11 Mat 7:6 Philippians 3:2 Psalms 59:7; Psalms 59:15. A.D. 1556, at Wessensten, in Germany, a Jew for theft was in this cruel manner to be executed. He was hanged by the feet with his head downward, between two dogs, which constantly snatched and bit at him (Melch. Adam in Vit. Jac. And.).
They pierced my hands and my feet] sc. When they nailed Christ to the cross, Matthew 27:35 John 20:25. Where let me similate, saith a learned man, the orator's gradation, Facinus vincire civem Romanum, &c. It was much for the Son of God to be bound, more to be beaten, most of all to be slain; Quid dicam in crucem tolli? but what shall I say to this, that he was crucified? that was the most vile and ignominious of all punishments; it was also a cruel and cursed kind of death; which yet he refused not: and here we have a clear testimony for his cross, which the devil would fain wring from us by his agents, the Jews, with their Keri and Chetib. See Galatin. l. 8, c. 17; l. 1, c. 8; Mercer in Job 7:20 .