Ἠλί Ἠλί λαμὰ σαβαχθανί
They are Hebrew words, rendered into the Greek, and in Hebrew are as follows:
אלי אלי למח שבחתני
The Scripture of these words says, “that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” as their proper translation. Here then are the words, beyond all dispute; and beyond all question, such is the interpretation given of them by Scripture. Now the words will not bear this interpretation, and it is a false rendering. The true meaning is just the opposite of the one given, and is—
My God, my God, how thou dost glorify me!
But even more, for while lama is why, or how, as a verbal it connects the idea of to dazzle, or adverbially, it could run “how dazzlingly,” and so on. To the unwary reader this interpretation is enforced, and made to answer, as it were, to the fulfilment of a prophetic utterance, by a marginal reference to the first verse of the twenty-second Psalm, which reads:
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
The Hebrew of this verse for these words is—
אלי אלי למה עזבתני
as to which the reference is correct, and the interpretation sound and good, but with an utterly different word. The words are—