It is taken from the 18th verse of the 22d Psalm, which Psalm was probably made by David, in reference to his humiliating and wretched expulsion from Jerusalem by his son Absalom, and what was done in consequence, viz., that he was hunted by ferocious enemies, whom he compares to furious bulls, and roaring lions, gaping upon him to devour him; that his palace was plundered, and that they divided his treasured garments, (in the East, where the fashions never change, every great man has constantly presses full of hundreds and thousands of garments, many of them very costly: they are considered as a valuable part of his riches), and cast lots for his robes.

This is the real meaning of this passage quoted as a prophecy.

In the same Psalm, there is another verse, which has been from time immemorial quoted as a prophecy of the crucifixion, (v.

16,) "They pierced my hands and my feet." In the original, there seems to have been a word dropped importing "they tear," or something like it, for it is literally, "Like a lion--my hands and my feet," and there is there no word answering to "pierced." The meaning, however, of the verse is not difficult to be discerned, "dogs have compassed me; the assembly of wicked men have enclosed me; like a lion--( they tear) my hands and my feet." The meaning may be discovered from the context, where David represents himself as in the utmost distress, helpless, and abandoned amidst his enemies, raging like wild beasts around him; then, by a strong, but striking Oriental figure, he represents himself like a carcass surrounded by dogs, who are busied in tearing the flesh from his bones; their teeth fixed in his hands and feet, and pulling him asunder.

This is the import of the place, and this interpretation is at last adopted, for the first time, I believe, by Christians, in the new version of the Psalms used by the Unitarian Church in London.
There is not a more palpable instance of the facility with which good natured and voracious piety is made to swallow the most flimsy arguments, if only agreeable to its wishes and wants, than the case under consideration.