You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
18 They
part [chalaq] my garments [beged] among
them, and cast [naphal] lots [gowral] upon my vesture. [labuwsh] KJV-Interlinear
18 They
divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots. NASB
When armies went to battle, is was common practice after the battle, that the property and weapons of the losers were collected by the winners. The spoils of war as it were.
Captured prisoners were enslaved or executed and their things were divided up amongst the winning soldiers.
Some things were divided up and other things of value were distributed by the casting of lots. Today we would call that the flip of a coin, heads or tails, the roll of dice, or some such game of chance where there was but one winner.
By the time of Jesus, once on the cross, his clothes were stripped from him and divided up among the soldiers, and then the tunic which was the more valuable article of clothing, was distributed by the casting of lots, rather than by being cut up into equal parts, Matt 27:35; Luke 23:34; John 19:23-24. The John 19 passage gives the best description of this process.
This event was of course 1000 years after this prophecy. David lived shortly prior to 1000 B.C.
Crucifixion was not a common practice until the time of the Persian Empire in the early 500's B.C. when Darius I crucified many thousands. The Greeks picked up on the torture practice and then the Romans began using it as the official form of execution in the first century A.D.
And as these things apply to one person, this chapter gives many references to practices that did not occur at the time of its writing, thus directing it to but one person, namely Jesus Christ, the Messiah, of whom David was writing.
No imposter could possible accomplish this on themselves, as these things depend on the actions of others (courts, judges, soldiers, crowds of people, etc.).
To receive notice of each days Bible Study, please go to my twitter page and sign up.
