Biblical Hebrew Forum

["David Kimbrough (CLWA)" <dkimbrough AT clwa.org>]

A different way to look at it is to determine the object of the verbs. Of
the six times that the English word "pierce" occurs in the KJV, the
corresponding verbs are once "daqar", twice "makhats", three times "naqab"
(Ignoring the 22nd Psalm for the moment which would be number seven). In
Strong's these three verbs have listed translations as "pierce", "wound",
"smite", "strike", "run-through", "pierce-through", "shatter", "bore",
"thrust", and "thrust-through". In each case, the object of the verb is a
part of the human body.

Of the 15 times that "karah" derived verbs are used (again ignoring the 22nd
Psalm) , the object is "pit" 9 times, "well" 2 times, "land" 1 time, "grave"
or "sepulcher" 1 time, "ear" 1 time (Psalm 40:6, where "opening the ear"
could also mean "digging out the earwax"), and "evil" 1 time (Proverbs 16:27
"diggeth up evil"). As can be seen, the object of this verb, even when it is
not translated as "dig", is something one could easily "dig". However one
would never "pierce" a well, land, a grave, or a pit (or earwax).

So even if one were to reject the "like a lion" reading, emending the text
to read "karu" would only result in an equally untenable reading, "they dig
my hands and my feet". It would seem to me that if the author wanted to
covey the idea that hands and feet had something sharp thrust through them,
producing a wound, the author had available several verbs that would do so
(daqar, makhats, and naqab).  

dkimbrough AT clwa.org