My God, why have you forsaken me?
The Old Testament
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?
Psalm 22:1
Read the full text in a modern translation BSB
Read the full text (31 verses)
In the New Testament
At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Mark 15:34
BSB
Read the full text in a modern translation BSB
Read the full text (26 verses)
A sufferer cries to God that he has been forsaken. Onlookers laugh, shake their heads and say: he trusted on the LORD, let him deliver him. They pierce his hands and feet, part his garments and cast lots for his vesture. At the end: rescue, and the nations will serve the LORD.
On the cross Jesus cries out the first line of this psalm, in Aramaic. In those days you referred to a whole psalm by naming its first line, the way we name a song by its title. The psalm ends in victory. The mockery of the chief priests in Matthew 27:43 follows Psalm 22:8 almost word for word. About Psalm 22:16: the standard Hebrew text has 'like a lion, my hands and my feet', the Septuagint has 'they pierced', and the King James follows that reading. A fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls seems to support 'pierce', but scholars still debate it. According to tradition David wrote the psalm, about a thousand years before Jesus; even those who date it later place it centuries before the Roman crucifixions.