Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Does God desire animal sacrifices?The Priestly source and the Genesis narrative have Yahweh approving Abel's animal sacrifice and later filling Leviticus with hundreds of verses of mandatory bl…
Hebrews 10:7-9(v7)Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.’ ” Previously saying, “Sacrifices…
Romans 7:22(v8)For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,
Luke 24:44(v7)He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets,…
John 4:34(v8)Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
Hebrews 10:5-12(v6)Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. You had no…
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Isaiah 1:11(v6)“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed…
Jeremiah 15:16(v8)Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God…
1 Samuel 15:22(v6)Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than…
John 5:39(v7)“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
Psalms 119:16(v8)I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word.
Psalms 119:24(v8)Indeed your statutes are my delight, and my counselors.
Psalms 37:30-31(v8)The mouth of the righteous talks of wisdom. His tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide.
Psalms 51:16(v6)For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
Psalms 119:47(v8)I will delight myself in your commandments, because I love them.
Psalms 119:92(v8)Unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.
Jeremiah 31:33(v8)“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward…
Luke 24:27(v7)Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Psalms 112:1(v8)Praise Yah! Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, who delights greatly in his commandments.
Proverbs 3:1(v8)My son, don’t forget my teaching; but let your heart keep my commandments:
Hosea 6:6(v6)For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
2 Corinthians 3:3(v8)being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets…
Matthew 9:13(v6)But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-4(v7)For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was…
Matthew 12:7(v6)But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless.
Job 23:12(v8)I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Amos 5:22(v6)Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your…
Jeremiah 7:21-23(v6)Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. For I didn’t speak to your fathers or…
Acts 10:43(v7)All the prophets testify about him, that through his name everyone who believes in him will receive remission of sins.”
1 Peter 1:10-11(v7)Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently. They prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching for…
Revelation 19:10(v7)I fell down before his feet to worship him. He said to me, “Look! Don’t do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers…
Job 33:16(v6)Then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction,
Isaiah 66:3(v6)He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog’s neck; he who offers an offering, as he who…
Psalms 50:8(v6)I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
Isaiah 50:4-5(v6)The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens…
Romans 8:29(v8)For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Exodus 21:6(v6)then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with…
Genesis 3:15(v7)I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv6–76 In sacrifice and oblation thou hast not taken…
6 In sacrifice and oblation thou hast not taken pleasure. Here David offers not only the sacrifice of praise, or, as the prophet Hosea calls it, (Hosea 14:2,) “the calves of the lips,” but, in token of his gratitude, offers and consecrates himself entirely to God; as if he had said, I am now wholly devoted to God, because, having been delivered by his wonderful power, I am doubly indebted to him for my life. At the same time, treating of the true worship of God, he shows that it consists not in outward ceremonies, but rather that it is spiritual. Accordingly, the meaning is, that he came into the presence of God not only in the outward pomp or ceremony and figures of the law, but that he brought with him the true devotion of the heart. We know, indeed, that all men have some sense of religion impressed upon their hearts, so that no one dares to withdraw openly and wholly from his service, and yet the greater part of men turn aside into winding and crooked paths; and hence it happens, that in serving God in a perfunctory manner, their worship is scarcely anything else than a mockery of him. We see then the reason why David, on the present occasion, shows in what the true worship of God consists; it is, that he may distinguish between himself and hypocrites, who draw near to God with their lips only, or at least seek to pacify him with cold and unmeaning ceremonies.
We now come to the exposition of the words. I have no doubt that David, under the four different kinds of sacrifices which he here enumerates, comprehends all the sacrifices of the law. His meaning, to express it in a few words, is, that God requires not mere ceremonies of those who serve him, but that he is satisfied only with sincerity of heart, with faith and holiness of life: and that he takes no pleasure merely in the visible sanctuary, the altar, the burning of incense, the killing of beasts, the lights, the costly apparel, and outward washings. From this he concludes, that he ought to be guided by another principle, and to observe another rule in the service of God, than a mere attention to these — that he should yield himself wholly to God.
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Thou hast bored my ears. Some think that in using this form of expression, David has a reference to the ordinance under the Law of which we read in Exodus 21:6. If any bond-servant, when the time of his being discharged from servitude had arrived, made no account of his freedom, he was brought to the public place of judgment, and having there declared that he wished to continue in servitude, his master pierced his ear with an awl, as a mark of perpetual bondage. But this mode of interpretation appears to be too forced and refined. Others more simply consider that it is of the same meaning as to render fit, or qualify for service, for David mentions not one ear only, but both. Men, we know, are naturally deaf, because they are so dull, that their ears are stopped until God pierce them. By this expression, therefore, is denoted the docility to which we are brought and moulded by the grace of the Holy Spirit. I, however, apply this manner of expression more closely to the scope of the passage before us, and explain it in this sense, That David was not slow and dull of hearing, as men usually are, so that he could discern nothing but what was earthly in the sacrifices, but that his ears had been cleansed, so that he was a better interpreter of the Law, and able to refer all the outward ceremonies to the spiritual service of God. He encloses the sentence, Thou hast bored my ears, as it were, in parenthesis, whilst he is treating professedly of sacrifices, so that the sentence might be explained in this way: Lord, thou hast opened my ears, that I may distinctly understand whatever thou hast commanded concerning the sacrifices, namely, that of themselves they afford thee no pleasure: for thou, who art a Spirit, takest no delight in these earthly elements, and hast no need of flesh or blood; and, therefore, thou requirest something of a higher and more excellent nature. If, however, it is objected that sacrifices were offered by the express commandment of God, I have just said that David here distinguishes between the spiritual service of God, and that which consisted in outward types and shadows. And in making this comparison, it is no great wonder to find him saying that the sacrifices are of no value, since they were only helps designed to lead men to true piety, and tended to a far higher end than that which was at first apparent. Seeing, then, God made use of these elements, only to lead his people to the exercises of faith and repentance, we conclude that he had no delight in being worshipped by sacrifices. We must always bear in mind, that whatever is not pleasing to God for its own sake, but only in so far as it leads to some other end, if it be put in the place of his true worship and service is rejected and cast away by him.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv6–7Thou hast opened mine ears to understand the spiritual…
Thou hast opened mine ears to understand the spiritual meaning of the sacrifices: and here David esteemeth the ceremonies of the law nothing in respect of the spiritual service.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv6–8Psa 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire;…
Psa 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
Ver. 6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire] Comparatively to the obedience of faith, 1Sa 15:22, without which, when hypocrites thought to bribe God by cold ceremonies, they were rejected. Christ is the end of the law to all that believe; that Lamb of God, slain from the beginning of the world, is the only expiatory sacrifice, and the foundation of that fore-mentioned blessedness, Psa 40:4. Now, since Christ suffered, the Levitical sacrifices being abolished, we have none to offer but such as are gratulatory, to show our thankfulness for such a Redeemer, whose perfect obedience, with the fruit of it, is here and in the following verses both described, and set forth for an absolute pattern to us of performing our duty toward God, for this inexplicable mercy. Confer Heb 10:5-6, &c. Here we have in Christ for our instruction, and in David also (his type) for our example, 1. A firm purpose of obedience, in a bored ear add a yielding heart. 2. A ready performance thereof, "Lo, I come." 3. A carefull observance of the word written, "In the volume of thy book it is written of me," Psa 40:7 4. A hearty delight in that observance, Psa 40:8 5. A public profession and communication of God’s goodness to others, Psa 40:9-10 (D. Ames). Now, we should labour to express Christ to the world, to walk as he walked, 1Jn 2:6; our lives should be in some sense parallel with his life, as the transcript with the original. He left us a copy to write by, saith St Peter, 1Pe 2:21
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Mine ears hast thou opened] Heb. digged, bored; a hearing ear hast thou bestowed upon me, which is a singular favour; for life entereth by the ear, Isa 55:3, as did death at first, Gen 3:19 Oh, pray that God would make the bore wide enough; that the inward ears being drawn up to the outward, one sound may pierce both at once.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv6–8These words may in an improper sense belong to…
These words may in an improper sense belong to the person and time of David; when God might be said not to desire or require legal sacrifices comparatively, as negative expressions are frequently understood, as Mat 9:13; 1Co 1:17, and in this very case of sacrifices, as Psa 51:16; Jer 7:22,23; Ho 6:6. So the sense is, Thou didst desire obedience more or rather than sacrifices, as was said, 1Sa 15:22. But in a proper and literal and full sense they belong only to the person and times of the Messias, in whose name David uttereth these words. And so the sense of the place is, God did not desire or require them for the satisfaction of his own justice, and the expiation of men’s sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, as is said, Heb 10:4-6; but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his Father’s will, as it here follows, Psa 40:7,8. So here is a prediction concerning the cessation and abolition of the legal sacrifices, and the substitution of a better instead of them.
Mine ears hast thou opened, Heb. bored. The sense is either,
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1. Whereas many men have no ears to hear, as is implied, Rev 2:7,11,17, or stop their ears, as Psa 58:4; Zec 7:11, thou hast given me open ears to hear and obey thy precepts, as this phrase is used, Isa 1:5, although indeed there is another verb in that text, which much alters the case. Or,
2. I have wholly devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as such, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears, according to the law and custom in that case, Exo 21:5,6; Deu 15:17. And whereas only one ear was then bored, and here it is ears, this may be either an ensilage of the plural number for the singular, whereof divers instances have been given; or else it may be so expressed emphatically, to intimate that Christ was more strictly obliged to a more universal obedience, not only active, to which the legal servants were bound, but passive also, to be obedient even unto the death, to which they were not obliged. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb 10:5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me; wherein though the words differ, the sense is the same; for the ears suppose a body to whom they belong, and the preparing of a body implies the preparing Or disposing of the ears, and the obligation of the person for whom a body was prepared to serve him who prepared it; which the boring of the ear signifies.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v6The psalmist, being struck with amazement at the wonderful…
The psalmist, being struck with amazement at the wonderful works that God had done for his people, is strangely carried out here to foretel that work of wonder which excels all the rest and is the foundation and fountain of all, that of our redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. God's thoughts, which were to us-ward concerning that work, were the most curious, the most copious, the most gracious, and therefore to be most admired. This paragraph is quoted by the apostle (Heb 10:5, etc.) and applied to Christ and his undertaking for us. As in the institutions, so in the devotions, of the Old Testament saints were aware of; and, when the apostle would show us the Redeemer's voluntary undertaking of his work, he does not fetch his account out of the book of God's secret counsels, which belong not to us, but from the things revealed. Observe,
I. The utter insufficiency of the legal sacrifices to atone for sin in order to our peace with God and our happiness in him: Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; thou wouldst not have the Redeemer to offer them. Something he must have to offer, but not these (Heb 8:3); therefore he must not be of the house of Aaron, Heb 7:14. Or, In the days of the Messiah burnt-offering and sin-offering will be no longer required, but all those ceremonial institutions will be abolished. But that is not all: even while the law concerning them was in full force it might be said, God did not desire them, nor accept them, for their own sake. They could not take away the guilt of sin by satisfying God's justice. The life of a sheep, which is so much inferior in value to that of a man (Mat 12:12), could not pretend to be an equivalent, much less an expedient to preserve the honour of God's government and laws and repair the injury done to that honour by the sin of man. They could not take away the terror of sin by pacifying the conscience, nor the power of sin by sanctifying the nature; it was impossible, Heb 9:9; Heb 10:1-4. What there was in them that was valuable resulted from their reference to Jesus Christ, of whom they were types - shadows indeed, but shadows of good things to come, and trials of the faith and obedience of God's people, of their obedience of God's people, of their obedience to the law and their faith in the gospel. But the substance must come, which is Christ, who must bring that glory to God and that grace to man which it was impossible those sacrifices should ever do.
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II. The designation of our Lord Jesus to the work and office of Mediator: My ears hast thou opened. God the Father disposed him to the undertaking (Isa 50:5, Isa 50:6) and then obliged him to go through with it. My ear hast thou digged. It is supposed to allude to the law and custom of binding servants to serve for ever by boring their ear to the doorpost; see Exo 21:6. Our Lord Jesus was so in love with his undertaking that he would not go out free from it, and therefore engaged to persevere for ever in it; and for this reason he is able to save us to the uttermost, because he has engaged to serve his Father to the uttermost, who upholds him in it, Isa 42:1.
III. His own voluntary consent to this undertaking: "Then said I, Lo, I come; then, when sacrifice and offering would not do, rather than the work should be undone; I said, Lo, I come, to enter the lists with the powers of darkness, and to advance the interests of God's glory and kingdom." This intimates three things: - 1. That he freely offered himself to this service, to which he was under no obligation at all prior to his own voluntary engagement. It was no sooner proposed to him than, with the greatest cheerfulness, he consented to it, and was wonderfully well pleased with the undertaking. Had he not been perfectly voluntary in it, he could not have been a surety, he could not have been a sacrifice; for it is by this will (this animus offerentis - mind of the offerer) that we are sanctified, Heb 10:10. 2. That he firmly obliged himself to it: "I come; I promise to come in the fulness of time." And therefore the apostle says, "It was when he came into the world that he had an actual regard to this promise, by which he had engaged his heart to approach unto God." He thus entered into bonds, not only to show the greatness of his love, but because he was to have the honour of his undertaking before he had fully performed it. Though the price was not paid, it was secured to be paid, so that he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 3. That he frankly owned himself engaged: He said, Lo, I come, said it all along to the Old Testament saints, who therefore knew him by the title of ho erchomenos - He that should come. This word was the foundation on which they built their faith and hope, and which they looked and longed for the accomplishment of.
IV. The reason why he came, in pursuance of his undertaking - because in the volume of the book it was written of him, 1. In the close rolls of the divine decree and counsel; there it was written that his ear was opened, and he said, Lo, I come; there the covenant of redemption was recorded, the counsel of redemption was recorded, the counsel of peace between the Father and the Son; and to that he had an eye in all he did, the commandment he received of his Father. 2. In the letters patent of the Old Testament. Moses and all the prophets testified of him; in all the volumes of that book something or other was written of him, which he had an eye to, that all might be accomplished, Joh 19:28.
V. The pleasure he took in his undertaking. Having freely offered himself to it, he did not fail, nor was discouraged, but proceeded with all possible satisfaction to himself (Psa 40:8. 9): I delight to do thy will, O my God! It was to Christ his meat and drink to go on with the work appointed to him (Joh 4:34); and the reason here given is, Thy law is within my heart; it is written there, it rules there. It is meant of the law concerning the work and office of the Mediator, what he was to do and suffer; this law was dear to him and had an influence upon him in his whole undertaking. Note, When the law of God is written in our hearts our duty will be our delight.
VI. The publication of the gospel to the children of men, even in the great congregation, Psa 40:9, Psa 40:10. The same that as a priest wrought out redemption for us, as a prophet, by his own preaching first, then by his apostles, and still by his word and Spirit, makes it know to us. The great salvation began to be spoken by the Lord, Heb 2:3. It is the gospel of Christ that is preached to all nations. Observe, 1. What it is that is preached: It is righteousness (Psa 40:9), God's righteousness (Psa 40:10), the everlasting righteousness which Christ has brought in (Dan 9:24); compare Rom 1:16, Rom 1:17. It is God's faithfulness to his promise, and the salvation which had long been looked for. It is God's lovingkindness and his truth, his mercy according to his word. Note, In the work of our redemption we ought to take notice how brightly all the divine attributions shine, and give to God the praise of each of them. 2. To whom it is preached - to the great congregation, Psa 40:9 and again Psa 40:10. When Christ was here on earth he preached to multitudes, thousands at a time. The gospel was preached both to Jews and Gentiles, to great congregations of both. Solemn religious assemblies are a divine institution, and in them the glory of God, in the face of Christ, ought to be both praised to the glory of God and preached for the edification of men. 3. How it is preached - freely and openly: I have not refrained my lips; I have not hid it; I have not concealed it. This intimates that whoever undertook to preach the gospel of Christ would be in great temptation to hide it and conceal it, because it must be preached with great contention and in the face of great opposition; but Christ himself, and those whom he called to that work, set their faces as a flint (Isa 50:7) and were wonderfully carried on in it. It is well for us that they were so, for by this means our eyes come to see this joyful light and our ears to hear this joyful sound, which otherwise we might for ever have perished in ignorance of.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv6–8Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire,.... These were…
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire,.... These were desired, willed, and appointed by God, and that very early, even from the times of our first parents; and, when performed aright, were acceptable to God, quite down to the times of the Messiah: indeed, when offered without faith in Christ, and with a wicked mind, to merit any thing at the hand of God, they were always abominable to him; and he likewise ever preferred love to himself, and of the neighbour, obedience to the commands of the moral law, and works of mercy to men, before all the sacrifices of the ceremonial law, Sa1 15:22; nor were these ever in such esteem with him as the sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart, or of praise and thanksgiving, Psa 51:16; nor were they ever regarded by him but as they respected Christ; nor were they ever designed to cleanse from sin, and take it away, but to lead to the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ: but none of these senses have place here: the meaning of the words is, that it was not the will of God, at the time this passage refers to, that legal sacrifices should continue any longer; and that they should not be offered up, even by good men, in the best manner, and to the best ends and purposes; the time being come that a better sacrifice should be offered, which was the sum and substance of them, and was prefigured by them;
mine ears hast thou opened; or "dug", or "bored" (m); in allusion, as is thought by many, to Exo 21:6; though the phrase rather signifies the formation and excavation of the ear; or the preparing and fitting it for its use; that is, to hearken to the will of his heavenly Father, to become man, offer himself a sacrifice, and suffer and die in the room of his people; to which he became obedient, taking upon him the form of a servant, when found in fashion as a man; and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; see Isa 50:4; in Heb 10:5, the words are rendered as by the Septuagint, "but a body hast thou prepared me"; and with it the Arabic and Ethiopic versions agree; and so Apollinarius,
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"flesh of mortal generation;''
a part of the body being put for the whole; and which, indeed, is supposed: for unless a body had been prepared for him, his ears could not have been opened; and it was in the body, in human nature, that he was the obedient servant; and this is to be understood, not only of a preparation of this body, in the purposes, counsel, and covenant of God; but chiefly of the formation of it in the womb of the virgin, where it was curiously wrought and prepared by the Holy, Ghost, that he might have something to offer, and in it become, as he did, an offering and a sacrifice to God, of a sweet smelling savour;
burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required; any longer; this body being prepared for the Messiah to be offered up in.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv6–8Sacrifice - These and the following words, may in…
Sacrifice - These and the following words, may in an improper sense belong to the time of David; when God might be said, not to desire or require legal sacrifices comparatively. Thou didst desire obedience rather than sacrifices, but in a proper sense, they belong only to the person and times of the Messiah, and so the sense is, God did not desire or require them, for the satisfaction of his own justice, and the expiation of mens sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his father's will, as it here follows, ver. 7, 8. So here is a prediction concerning the cessation of the legal sacrifice, and the substitution of a better instead of them. Opened - Hebrew. bored. I have devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as such, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears, according to the law and custom in that case, Exod. xxi, 5, 6. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb. x, 5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv6–8Verse 6. Sacrifice and offering] The apostle, Heb 10:5,…
Verse 6. Sacrifice and offering] The apostle, Heb 10:5, c., quoting this and the two following verses, says, When he (the Messiah) cometh into the world-was about to be incarnated, He saith-to God the Father, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not-it was never thy will and design that the sacrifices under thy own law should be considered as making atonement for sin they were only designed to point out my incarnation and consequent sacrificial death: and therefore a body hast thou prepared me, by a miraculous conception in the womb of a virgin; according to thy word, The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.
A body hast thou prepared me. - The quotation of this and the two following verses by the apostle, Heb 10:5, c., is taken from the Septuagint, with scarcely any variety of reading: but, although the general meaning is the same, they are widely different in verbal expression in the Hebrew. David's words are אזנים כרית לי oznayim caritha lli, which we translate, My ears hast thou opened but they might be more properly rendered, My ears hast thou bored; that is, Thou hast made me thy servant for ever, to dwell in thine own house: for the allusion is evidently to the custom mentioned Ex 21:2, c.: "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free: but if the servant shall positively say, I love my master, c., I will not go out free then his master shall bring him to the doorpost, and shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever."
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But how is it possible that the Septuagint and the apostle should take a meaning so totally different from the sense of the Hebrew? Dr. Kennicott has a very ingenious conjecture here: he supposes that the Septuagint and apostle express the meaning of the words as they stood in the copy from which the Greek translation was made and that the present Hebrew text is corrupted in the word אזנים oznayim, ears, which has been written through carelessness for אז גוה az gevah, THEN, a BODY The first syllable, אז az, THEN, is the same in both; and the latter, נים, which, joined to אז makes אזנים oznayim, might have been easily mistaken for גוה gevah, BODY; נ nun being very like ג gimel; י yod like ו vau; and ה he like final ם mem; especially if the line on which the letters were written in the MS. happened to be blacker than ordinary, which has often been a cause of mistake, it might then have been easily taken for the under-stroke of the mem, and thus give rise to a corrupt reading; add to this, the root כרה carah signifies as well to prepare, as to open, bore, c. On this supposition the ancient copy translated by the Septuagint, and followed by the apostle, must have read the text thus: אז גוה כרית לי az gevah charitha lli; Σωμα δε κατηρτισω μοι· Then a body thou hast prepared me: thus the Hebrew text, the version of the Septuagint, and the apostle, will agree in what is known to be an indisputable fact in Christianity; namely, that Christ was incarnated for the sin of the world.
The AEthiopic has nearly the same reading: the Arabic has both, "A body hast thou prepared me, and mine ears thou hast opened." But the Syriac, the Chaldee, and the Vulgate, agree with the present Hebrew text; and none of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi have any various reading on the disputed words.
It is remarkable, that all the offerings and sacrifices which were considered to be of an atoning or cleansing nature, offered under the law, are here enumerated by the psalmist and the apostle, to show that none of them, nor all of them, could take away sin; and that the grand sacrifice of Christ was that alone which could do it.
Four kinds are here specified, both by the psalmist and the apostle: viz. SACRIFICE, זבח zebach, θυσια; OFFERING, מנחה minchah, προσφορα; BURNT-OFFERING, עולה olah, ολοκαυτωμα; SIN-OFFERING, חטאה chataah, περιαμαρτιας. Of all these we may say, with the apostle, it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats, c. should take away sin.
Thou hast had no pleasure. - Thou couldst never be pleased with the victims under the law thou couldst never consider them as atonements for sin, as they could never satisfy thy justice, nor make thy law honourable.
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Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv6–8Psa 40:6. Sacrifice, &c. — These and the four…
Psa 40:6. Sacrifice, &c. — These and the four following verses may, in an improper sense, belong to the person and time of David; when God might be said, not to desire, or require, legal sacrifices, comparatively. So the sense is, Thou didst desire obedience more, or rather, than sacrifices, as was said 1Sa 15:22. But in a proper and full sense, they belong only to the person and time of the Messiah, in whose name David utters these words. And so the sense is, God did not desire or require them for the satisfaction of his own justice and the expiation of men’s sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, as is said Heb 10:4-6; but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his Father’s will, as it here follows, Psa 40:7-8. So here is a prediction concerning the cessation of the legal sacrifices, and the substitution of a better instead of them. Mine ears hast thou opened — Hebrew, bored. I have devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as thy servant, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears, according to the law and custom in that case, Exo 21:5-6. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb 10:5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me. In which translation, though the words differ, the sense is the same; for the ears suppose a body to which they belong, and the preparing of a body implies the preparing of the ears, and the obligation of the person for whom a body was prepared, to serve him who prepared it; which the boring of the ear signified.
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Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv6–8Sacrifice and offering - The first of the words…
Sacrifice and offering - The first of the words used here - זבח zebach - means properly a bloody-offering; the other - מנחה minchāh - an offering without blood, as a thank-offering. See the notes at Isa 1:11. The four words employed in this verse - sacrifice, offering, burnt-offering, sin-offering - embrace all the species of sacrifice and offerings known among the Hebrews; and the idea here is, that such offering as they were accustomed to offer was required of him who is here referred to. A higher service was needed.
Thou didst not desire - The word here rendered desire means to incline to, to be favorably disposed, as in reference to doing anything; that is, to will, to desire, to please. The meaning here is, that he did not will this or wish it; he would not be pleased with it in comparison with obedience, or as a substitute for obedience. He preferred obedience to any external rites and forms; to all the rites and forms of religion prescribed by the law. They were of no value without obedience; they could not be substituted in the place of obedience. This sentiment often occurs in the Old Testament, showing that the design of all the rites then prescribed was to bring men to obedience, and that they were of no value without obedience. See the notes at Isa 1:10-20; compare 1Sa 15:22; Psa 51:16-17; Hos 6:6; see also the notes at Heb 10:5.
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Mine ears hast thou opened - Margin: “digged.” The Hebrew word - כרה kârâh - means “to dig;” as, to dig a well, Gen 26:25; to dig a sepulchre, Gen 50:5. As used here this would properly mean, “mine ears hast thou digged out;” that is, thou hast so opened them that there is a communication with the seat of hearing; or, in other words, thou hast caused me to hear this truth, or hast revealed it to me. Compare Isa 50:5, “The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious.” The meaning here would be, that the ear had been opened, so that it was quick to hear. An indisposition to obey the will of God is often expressed by the fact that the ears are “stopped:” Zec 7:11; Psa 58:4-5; Pro 21:13. There is manifestly no allusion here, though that has been supposed by many to be the reference, to the custom of boring through the ear of a servant with an awl, as a sign that he was willing to remain with his master: Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17. In that case the outer circle, or rim of the ear was “bored through” with an awl; here the idea is that of “hollowinq out,” digging, excavating, that is, of making a passage “through,” so that one could hear; not the mere piercing of the outer ear. The essential idea is, that this truth had been communicated to him - that God preferred obedience to sacrifice; and that he had been made attentive to that truth, “as if” he had been before deaf, and his ears had been opened. The principal difficulty in the passage relates to its application in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 10:5. That difficulty arises from the fact that the Septuagint translates the phrase here by the words “a body hast thou prepared me;” and that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews founds an argument on that translation, with reference to the work of the Messiah. On this point, see the notes at Heb 10:5. It is perhaps not now possible to explain this difficulty in a way that will be entirely satisfactory.
burnt-offering - See the notes at Isa 1:11. The uniqueness of this offering was that it was consumed by fire.
And sin-offering - sin-offering was an offering or sacrifice made specifically for sin, with a view to expiate either sin in general, or some specific act of sin. In the Mosaic law there are two kinds of these offerings prescribed; “trespass-offerings,” or offerings for guilt or fault, denoted by the word אשׁם 'âshâm; and sin-offering, denoted by the word used here. They are offerings which were consumed by fire, Lev. 5:1-19; Lev 6:1-7; Lev 14:10. But the essential “idea” was that they were for “sin,” or for some act of guilt. In a general sense, this was true of all bloody offerings or sacrifices; but in these cases the attention of the worshipper was turned particularly to the fact of sin or transgression.
Thou hast not required - That is, thou hast not required them as compared with obedience; in other words, thou hast preferred the latter. These offerings would not meet the case. More was necessary to be done than was implied in these sacrifices. They would not expiate sin; they would not remove guilt; they would not give the conscience peace. A higher work, a work implied in an act of “obedience” of the most exalted kind, was demanded in order to accomplish the work to be done. Compare Psa 51:16.
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Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv6–7In Paul's view this passage has more meaning than…
In Paul's view this passage has more meaning than the mere expression of grateful devotion to God's service. He represents Christ as declaring that the sacrifices, whether vegetable or animal, general or special expiatory offerings, would not avail to meet the demands of God's law, and that He had come to render the required satisfaction, which he states was effected by "the offering of the body of Christ" [Heb 10:10], for that is the "will of God" which Christ came to fulfil or do, in order to effect man's redemption. We thus see that the contrast to the unsatisfactory character assigned the Old Testament offerings in Psa 40:6 is found in the compliance with God's law (compare Psa 40:7-8). Of course, as Paul and other New Testament writers explain Christ's work, it consisted in more than being made under the law or obeying its precepts. It required an "obedience unto death" [Phi 2:8], and that is the compliance here chiefly intended, and which makes the contrast with Psa 40:6 clear.
mine ears hast thou opened--Whether allusion is made to the custom of boring a servant's ear, in token of voluntary and perpetual enslavement (Exo 21:6), or that the opening of the ear, as in Isa 48:8; Isa 50:5 (though by a different word in Hebrew) denotes obedience by the common figure of hearing for obeying, it is evident that the clause is designed to express a devotion to God's will as avowed more fully in Psa 40:8, and already explained. Paul, however, uses the words, "a body hast thou prepared me" [Heb 10:5], which are found in the Septuagint in the place of the words, "mine ears hast thou opened." He does not lay any stress on this clause, and his argument is complete without it. It is, perhaps, to be regarded rather as an interpretation or free translation by the Septuagint, than either an addition or attempt at verbal translation. The Septuagint translators may have had reference to Christ's vicarious sufferings as taught in other Scriptures, as in Isa 53:4-11; at all events, the sense is substantially the same, as a body was essential to the required obedience (compare Rom 7:4; Pe1 2:24).
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Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv6–86. According to Heb_10:5, Psa_40:6-10 are the words of…
6. According to Heb_10:5, Psa_40:6-10 are the words of Christ, or of David speaking in the person of Christ.
Sacrifice… offering… burnt offering… sin offering—The enumeration covers all the offerings necessary to entering into and continuing in covenant with God. The first two are generic terms for bloody and unbloody offerings, the last two specific of bloody sacrifices; the “burnt offering,” עולה, (‘olah,) a self-dedicatory sacrifice, the “sin offering,” חשׂאה, (hhattaah,) an expiation.
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Mine ears hast thou opened—Literally, ears hast thou digged for me. More naturally the mind turns to boring through the ear of the servant, Exo_21:6, as the basis of this metaphor. But a different word occurs there, and the noun (ear) is in the singular, while this is plural. Besides, the import of the passages is not identical. The verb כרה, (karah,) in the text, has the general sense of to dig, as a pit, a wall, a grave, but allows the sense of to uncover, to open, as in the English text. To open the ears is a figurative expression for to awaken attention, as the inlet to the understanding, (Isa_50:4,) the indispensable preparation of a servant in order to perfect obedience. It signifies, also, to reveal, or communicate, as 1Sa_20:3; where “show it me,” is literally, uncover mine ear. See also chapter Psa_22:17; Job_36:10; Job_36:15. The emblematic idea, then, of “mine ears hast thou opened,” is, thou hast revealed to me, caused me to understand, thy most secret will, or mind. The ideas of attentive listening and an inward, hearty obedience, are implied. David’s interior ear had now been opened to receive the will of God in its spiritual sense, and to perceive that animal sacrifice, in itself, was not the ultimate requirement, but the obedience of the heart, of which the ritual form was but the expression. Compare 1Sa_15:22; Psa_51:16-17. The application of all this to Messiah, to whom it primarily refers, (and to David only secondarily,) is made in Heb_10:5-9, where it is quoted in proof of the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, namely, that pardon is obtained only by the death of Christ as a sin offering.
Instead of “mine ears hast thou opened,” the Septuagint gives σωμα κατηρτισω μοι, Thou hast prepared me a body. This, not the Hebrew form, the apostle quotes Heb_10:5, for the reason, says Hammond, “that the apostle attended more to the sense than to the words, and changed it into those words which more fully and perspicuously expressed the mystery of Christ’s incarnation.” G.C. Storr admits that a body hast thou prepared me, may be brought within the general limits of an ad sensum quotation. To this Professor Stuart also agrees. This would be sustained also by the analogy of New Testament quotations from the Old. Bengel thinks the version of the Seventy is an interpretation rather than a translation of the Hebrew text, the “ears,” as a part, being put for the “body.” Moll, also, thinks the Septuagint is an “enlarged and explanatory translation” of the Hebrew. Olshausen calls it a “free translation,” and thinks that the Septuagint might have considered “ears” to be unintelligible, and substituted the more general idea, “Thou hast prepared for me a body.” This view simply takes כרה, (karah,) opened, in the sense of prepared, which is admissible, and by synecdoche the “ears” for the whole body. It is in harmony, also, with the scope both of the psalm and the quotation, for the inadequacy of animal sacrifice with the doctrine of atonement unchanged, naturally suggests a higher expiation which Messiah, in his greater fulfilment of the will of God, relating to pardon by atonement, could accomplish only by taking upon himself a human body. On this plan, therefore, “the incarnation of the Son was a prerequisite to obedience,” (Alexander,) and hence in itself an act of obedience to the will of God touching the redemptive plan. “It was the first and most direct step to his being made a servant.”—Bonar. See note on Heb_10:5
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv6–86. The various kinds of offerings are described according…
6. The various kinds of offerings are described according to their material, as sacrifice of slain animals, and offering (‘meal-offering’) of the fruits of the earth (Lev_2:1 ff.); and according to their purpose, as burnt-offering; symbolising the dedication of the worshipper to God, and sin-offering, for the reconciliation of the offender and the restoration of interrupted communion.
thou didst not desire] R.V. thou hast no delight in. It is the same word as in Psa_40:8, and in the parallel passages Hos_6:6; Isa_1:11; cp. 1Sa_15:22.
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mine ears hast thou opened] Lit. ears hast thou dug (or, pierced) for me. This unique phrase can hardly be an equivalent for the common expression to ‘uncover’ or ‘open the ear,’ to be explained as a parenthetical exclamation that this truth has been impressed upon the Psalmist by a special revelation. It is best to regard it as a statement preparing the way for Psa_40:7, and placed between the two parallel clauses of Psa_40:6 for poetic effect. God has endowed man with the faculty of hearing, and the endowment implies a corresponding duty of obedience. ‘Ears’ need not be limited to the physical organ, but may include ‘the ears of the heart.’ The same Hebr. word means to hear and to obey. Cp. the repeated appeals to Israel to hear; Deu_4:1; Deu_6:4; &c.
The language does not suggest any reference to the custom of boring to the slave’s ear (Exo_21:6; Deu_15:17) in the sense, ‘Thou hast bound me to Thyself for perpetual service.’
hast thou not required] Lit. asked. Cp. Deu_10:12; Mic_6:8.
6–8. True service consists not in material sacrifices but in obedience to the will of God. The stanza is an answer to the implied question, How should man express his gratitude? It affirms the common prophetic doctrine that sacrifice was in itself of no value apart from the dispositions of heart which it was intended to represent. The new commandment of the Exodus was not sacrifice but obedience (Exo_15:26). See Psa_50:7 ff; Psa_51:16 ff.; 1Sa_15:22; Hos_6:6; Mic_6:8; Jer_7:21 ff.
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Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv6–7(6) Mine ears hast thou opened.—Literally, Ears hast thou…
(6) Mine ears hast thou opened.—Literally, Ears hast thou dug for me, which can hardly mean anything but “Thou hast given me the sense of hearing.” The words are an echo of 1Sa_15:22. The attentive ear and obedient heart, not formal rites, constitute true worship. Comp. the words so frequent on the lips of Christ, “He that hath ears to hear let him hear.” The fact that the plural ears is used instead of the singular, sets aside the idea of a revelation, which is expressed in Isa_48:8 by “open the ear” and 1Sa_9:15 “uncover the ear.” Not that the idea is altogether excluded, since the outward ears maybe typical of the inward. The same fact excludes allusion to the symbolic act by which a slave was devoted to perpetual servitude (Exo_21:6), because then also only one ear was bored. For the well-known variation in the LXX. see New Testament Commentary, Heb_10:5. The latest commentator, Grätz, is of opinion that the text is corrupt, and emends (comp. Psa_51:16) to, “Shouldest thou desire sacrifice and offering I would select the fattest,” a most desirable result if his arguments, which are too minute for insertion, were accepted.
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The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv6–8Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Will the…
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Will the right return be by sacrifices and burnt offerings? No, the psalmist answers to himself; it is not these which God really "desires." Samuel had already preached the doctrine, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams". (1Sa_15:22) David goes further. Apart from a spirit of obedience, sacrifice and offering are not desired or required at all; rather, as Isaiah says, they are a weariness and an abomination. (Isa_1:11, Isa_1:12) The one thing needed is obedience a cheerful, willing obedience to all that God reveals as his will. Mine ears hast thou opened. Either, "Thou hast taken away my deafness, and given me ears open to receive and embrace thy Law;" or, perhaps, with special reference to Exo_21:6 and Deu_15:17, "Thou hast accepted me as thy voluntary servant, and bored through mine ear, to mark that I am thy servant for ever." Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Of the four kinds of offering mentioned in this verse, the first (jbz) is the ordinary offering of a victim at the altar in sacrifice; the second (hjnm), the meat offering of flour, with oil and frankincense accompanying it; the third (hlw) is the "whole burnt offering," representative of complete self-sacrifice; and the fourth (hafj), the "sin offering," or "trespass offering," of which the special intention was expiation.
Vers. 6-8 (taken along with Heb_10:5-9) The supreme surrender, and its eternal value.
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That some of the psalms are applied to Christ does not warrant us in applying them all to him; and even if some verses of any one psalm are applied to the Messiah, we. are not thereby, warranted in applying all the verses in such psalm to him. There are direct Messianic psalms, which apply only to the Lord Jesus Christ; such are the second and the hundred and tenth psalms. Critics some of them, at least demur to this as being contrary to psychological law. But it is not merely by the psychological law of the natural man that these Messianic psalms are declared to have been written. We are pointed, for their origin, to a fourfold divergence from naturalistic psychology.
1. It is not of psychology we have to think, but of pneumatology.
2. Of the pneumatology of the spiritual man.
3. Of the pneumatology of the spiritual man when "borne along" by the Divine Pneuma.
4. Of such action of the Divine Pneuma on the human for a specific Divine purpose. All this is indicated in 2Pe_1:21; and therefore all such critics as those to which we refer are totally beside the mark. (see our remarks on Ps 32) But there are also psalms which are indirectly Messianic. They are marked, speaking generally, by the pronoun "I" The writer speaks for himself, in the first instance; but whether he knew or intended it or not, the words had such a far-reachingness about them, that they could only be filled up in their perfect meaning by the Lord Jesus Christ. Such is the case with the verses now before us. They first of all apply to David, and it is quite possible that he intended nothing further; if so, unwittingly to himself, he was borne along to utter words whose fulness of meaning could only be disclosed by the Incarnation, by David"s Son, who had eternally been David"s Lord; and, as such, the doctrines they contain are truly sublime. There is a somewhat difficult matter, which may be indicated by the questions:
(1) How came the phrase, "Mine ears hast thou opened," to be rendered by the LXX, "A body hast thou prepared me"? and
(2) whether of the two readings is to be accepted? Dean Alford (see his Commentary, in loc. ) prefers to leave the difficulties unsolved. Dr. J. Fye Smith ("Script. Test.," vol. 1. p. 208), Dr. Boothroyd, and others, with little hesitation, express their conviction that the original and correct phrase is that adopted by the LXX Calmet suggests, "On lit dans l"hebreu antes, peutetre pour corpus autem. " Archdeacon Farrarsays, in his notes on Heb_10:5-7, "Finding the rendering in the LXX, believing it to represent the true sense of the original (as it does), and also seeing it to be eminently illustrative of his subject, the writer naturally adopts it." On the whole, then, the variation presents an interesting point in textual criticism, rather than any doctrinal difficulty. Since, in either case, the substantial meaning is, "My bodily frame has been marked out and sealed for the performance of thy will." By the very frequent quotation from the LXX rather than from the Hebrew, even when they vary, the sacred writers show how much more important in their view was the main thought than the precise form of expression. Having, then, in two separate homilies, dealt with this psalm in its application to David, we will now luxuriate in these verses as finding their highest and noblest application in Christ, and in him alone. In so doing, eight lines of thought require to be laid down.
I THERE IS A MOMENTOUS PRINCIPLE UNDERLYING BOTH THE HEBREW AND THE CHRISTIAN ECONOMIES. It is this that sin has disturbed the relations between man and God, so that nothing is right with man till these relations are readjusted and harmony is restored. The whole of the Mosaic economy was an education in the evil of sin. "By Law is the knowledge of sin"; (Rom_3:20) "The Law was our child-guide unto Christ". (Gal_3:24)
II UNDER THE LAW, THE PEOPLE WERE TAUGHT THAT SIN MUST BE PUT AWAY BY SACRIFICE. "Without shedding of blood is no remission". (Heb_9:22) But there will ever remain this wide, this infinite, difference between Jewish and pagan sacrifices the pagan sacrifices started from man, and expressed his desire to propitiate God; the Jewish sacrifices were appointed by God himself, as by One pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin, who would cancel guilt only as sin had been condemned.
III THE VARIED SACRIFICES UNDER THE LAW WERE BUT A "FIGURE FOR THE TIME THEN PRESENT." The doctrine of the insufficiency of fleshly sacrifices is found not only in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but also in the Old Testament. (see 1Sa_15:22,-23 Psa_51:16 Psa_40:6-8 Isa_1:11-17 Jer_7:22, 23 Mic_6:6-8) The more discerning and spiritually minded of the Hebrew saints saw and felt how ineffective were all the varied offeringsto ensure peace with God; and, because ineffective, they were necessarily typical Hence
IV THE OLD TESTAMENT DISPENSATION WAS IN ITS ENTIRETY BUT PROPHETIC OF ONE WHO SHOULD COME. (Cf. Luk_24:44 Act_17:2, 3 28:23 Dan_9:24-27) The entire argument in Hebrews 9. and 10. shows this. From the time when he who saw Messiah"s day from afar said, "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering," the outlook of the Church of God was towards One "who should come into the world.
V THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, IN THE FACT OF HIS INCARNATION, DECLARED THAT BE HAD COME TO ACCOMPLISH THE UNFULFILLED MEANING OF OLD TESTAMENT SACRIFICES. We are not told here that he said this by his Spirit in the fortieth psalm, but that "when he came into the world" he said it. His entrance into our race was itself the great declaration. That act of "emptying himself" spake volumes then, and will do through all time; and thus he put upon the ancient words the sublimest possible significance.
VI IN ACCOMPLISHING TYPE AND PROPHECY, JESUS FULFILLED THE WORD OF GOD. His advent to earth was an absolute self-surrender to the Father"s will. (cf. Joh_4:34 Joh_6:38) He fulfilled the Father"s will
(1) by revealing the Father;
(2) by honouring the Law;
(3) by condemning sin;
(4) by thus laying a basis for the forgiveness of every penitent.
VII ON THE GROUND OF THIS SURRENDER OF HIMSELF, SIN IS PUT AWAY. "He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself". (Heb_9:26) The absolute surrender of the will of the Eternal Son to the Eternal Father accomplished, in fact, that which all past sacrifices had accomplished only in figure. The surrender of that will ensured the fulfilment of all the purposes for which that will was surrendered. "He hath obtained the eternal redemption for us". (Heb_9:12; see Joh_6:38-40)
VIII SIN HAVING BEEN PUT AWAY FOR EVER, THE ANCIENT SACRIFICES HAVE CEASED FOR EVER. "He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second"; (Heb_10:9) "By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Any pretended repetition of the Saviour"s sacrifice in the Mass is impiety. No repetition of it is possible. All Old Testament sacrifices have ceased; the Old Testament priesthood has ceased, and has never been renewed. Note: What now remains for us? Only
(1) to accept the one offering of the Son of God as all-sufficient; and
(2) to render now the only sacrifice which is possible for us, viz. the loving, the absolute surrender of our will to him who hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, that we may stand perfect add complete in all the will of God. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv6–8Ver. 6. Here we enter upon one of the…
Ver. 6. Here we enter upon one of the most wonderful passages in the whole of the Old Testament, a passage in which the incarnate Son of God is seen not through a glass darkly, but as it were face to face. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. In themselves considered, and for their own sakes, the Lord saw nothing satisfactory in the various offerings of the ceremonial law. Neither the victim pouring forth its blood, nor the fine flour rising in smoke from the altar, could yield content to Jehovah's mind; he cared not for the flesh of bulls or of goats, neither had he pleasure in corn and wine, and oil. Typically these offerings had their worth, but when Jesus, the Antitype, came into the world, they ceased to be of value, as candles are of no estimation when the sun has arisen. Mine ears hast thou opened. Our Lord was quick to hear and perform his Father's will; his ears were as if excavated down to his soul; they were not closed up like Isaac's wells, which the Philistines filled up, but clear passages down to the fountains of his soul. The prompt obedience of our Lord is here the first idea. There is, however, no reason whatever to reject the notion that the digging of the ear here intended may refer to the boring of the ear of the servant, who refused out of love to his master to take his liberty, at the year of jubilee; his perforated ear, the token of perpetual service, is a true picture of our blessed Lord's fidelity to his Father's business, and his love to his Father's children. Jesus irrevocably gave himself up to be the servant of servants for our sake and God's glory. The Septuagint, from which Paul quoted, has translated this passage, "A body hast thou prepared me:" how this reading arose it is not easy to imagine, but since apostolical authority has sanctioned the variation, we accept it as no mistake, but as an instance of various readings equally inspired. In any case, the passage represents the Only Begotten as coming into the world equipped for service; and in a real and material body, by actual life and death, putting aside all the shadows of the Mosaic law. Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Two other forms of offerings are here mentioned; tokens of gratitude and sacrifices for sin as typically presented are set aside; neither the general nor the private offerings are any longer demanded. What need of mere emblems when the substance itself is present? We learn from this verse that Jehovah values far more the obedience of the heart than all the imposing performances of ritualistic worship; and that our expiation from sin comes not to us as the result of an elaborate ceremonial, but as the effect of our great Substitute's obedience to the will of Jehovah.
Ver. 6. Sacrifice and offering...burnt offering and sin offering. Four kinds are here specified, both by the psalmist and apostle: namely, sacrifice (xbz) zebhach, yusia; offering, (hxnm) minchah, prosfora; burnt offering, (hlwe) olah, olokautwma; sin offering, (hajx) chataah, peri amartias. Of all these we may say with the apostle, it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats, etc., should take away sin. Adam Clarke.
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Ver. 6. Mine ears hast thou opened. The literal translation is, mine ears hast thou digged (or pierced) through; which may well be interpreted as meaning, "Thou hast accepted me as thy slave, " in allusion to the custom Ex 21:6 of masters boring the ear of a slave, who had refused his offered freedom, in token of retaining him. Daniel Cresswell.
Ver. 6. John Calvin, in treating upon the interpretation, "mine ears hast thou bored, "says, "this mode of interpretation appears to be too forced and refined."
Ver. 6. Mine ears hast thou opened. If it is to be said that the apostle to the Hebrews read this differently, I answer, this does not appear to me. It is true, he found a different, but corrupted translation (wtia, ears, as the learned have observed, having been changed into swma, body) in the LXX, which was the version then in use; and he was obliged to quote it as he found it, under the penalty, if he altered it, of being deemed a false quoter. He therefore took the translation as he found it, especially as it served to illustrate his argument equally well. Upon this quotation from the LXX the apostle argues, Ps 40:9, "He, (Christ) taketh away the first (namely, legal sacrifices), that he may establish the second" (namely, obedience to God's will), in offering himself a sacrifice for the sins of mankind; and thus he must have argued upon a quotation for the Hebrew text as it stands at present. Green, quoted in S. Burder's "Scripture Expositor."
Ver. 6. The apostle's reading Heb 10:5, though it be far distant from the letter of the Hebrew, and in part from the LXX (as I suppose it to have been originally), yet is the most perspicuous interpretation of the meaning of it: Christ's body comprehended the ears, and that assumed on purpose to perform in it the utmost degree of obedience to the will of God, to be obedient even to death, and thereby to be as the priest. Henry Hammond.
Ver. 6.
Nor sacrifice thy love can win,
Nor offerings from the stain of sin
Obnoxious man shall clear:
Thy hand my mortal frame prepares,
(Thy hand, whose signature it bears,)
And opens my willing ear. James Merrick, M.A., 1720-1769.
Ver. 6-7. In these words an allusion is made to a custom of the Jews to bore the ears of such as were to be their perpetual servants, and to enrol their names in a book, or make some instrument of the covenant. "Sacrifices and burnt offerings thou wouldst not have; "but because I am thy vowed servant, bored with an awl, and enrolled in thy book, I said, Lo, I come; I delight to do thy will, O my God. These words of the Psalm are alleged by S. Paul, Hebrews 10. But the first of them with a most strange difference. For whereas the psalmist hath, according to the Hebrew verity, Sacrifice and burnt offering thou wouldst not: mine ears thou hast bored or digged, (tyrn); S. Paul reads with the LXX, swma kathrtisw moi, "A body thou hast prepared or fitted me." What equipollency can be in sense between these two? This difficulty is so much the more augmented because most interpreters make the life of the quotation to lie in those very words where the difference is, namely, That the words, "A body thou hast prepared me, "are brought by the apostle to prove our Saviour's incarnation; whereunto the words in the Psalm itself (Mine ears hast thou bored, or digged, or opened), take them how you will in no wise suit. I answer, therefore, That the life of the quotation lies not in the words of difference, nor can do, because this epistle was written to the Hebrews, and so first in the Hebrew tongue, where this translation of the LXX could have no place. And if the life of the quotation lay here, I cannot see how it can possibly be reconciled. It lies therefore in the words where there is no difference, namely, That Christ was such a High Priest as came to sanctify us, not with the legal offerings and sacrifices, but by his obedience in doing like a devoted servant the will of his Father. Thus, the allegation will not depend at all upon the words of difference, and so they give us liberty to reconcile them: Mine ears hast thou bored, saith the psalmist, i.e., Thou hast accepted me for a perpetual servant, as masters are wont, according to the law, to bore such servants' ears as refuse to part from them. Now the LXX, according to whom the apostle's epistle readeth, thinking perhaps the meaning of this speech would be obscure to such as knew not that custom, chose rather to translate it generally swma de katertisw moi, "Thou hast fitted my body, "namely, to be thy servant, in such a manner as servants' bodies are wont to be. And so the sense is all one, though not specified to the Jewish custom of boring the ear with an awl, but left indifferently applicable to the custom of any nation in marking and stigmatising their servants' bodies. Joseph Mede, B.D., 1586-1638.
Ver. 6-10. Here we have in Christ for our instruction, and in David also (his type) for our example; 1. A firm purpose of obedience, in a bored ear, and a yielding heart. 2. A ready performance thereof: Lo, I come. 3. A careful observance of the word written: In the volume of the Book it is written of me, Ps 40:7. 4. A hearty delight in that observance, Ps 40:8.
5. A public profession and communication of God's goodness to others, Ps 40:9-10. Now, we should labour to express Christ to the world, to walk as he walked 1Jo 2:6: our lives should be in some sense parallel with his life, as the transcript with the original: he left us a copy to write by, saith St. Peter, 1Pe 2:21. John Trapp.
Ver. 6. Here David goes beyond himself, and speaks the language of David's Son. This was naturally suggested by God's wonderful works, and innumerable thoughts of love to man.
1. The sacrifices that were not required. These were the sacrifices and burnt offerings under the law.
1. When required? From Adam to the coming of Christ.
2. When not required?
3. Why required before? As types of the one method of redemption.
4. Why not now required? Because the great Antitype had come.
2. The sacrifice that was required. This was the sacrifice offered on Calvary.
1. It was required by God by his justice, his wisdom, his faithfulness, his love, his honour, his glory.
2. It was required by man to give him salvation and confidence in that salvation.
3. It was required for the honour of the moral government of God throughout the universe.
3. The person by whom this sacrifice was offered. Mine ears hast thou opened. This is the language of Christ, prospectively denoting
1. Knowledge of the sacrifice required.
2. Consecration of himself as a servant for that end.
George Rogers.
Ver. 6. Mine ears hast thou opened. Readiness to hear, fixity of purpose, perfection of obedience, entireness of consecration.
Ver. 6-8. The Lord gives an ear to hear his word, a mouth to confess it, a heart to love it, and power to keep it.
James Merrick, M.A., 1720-1769.
Psalms 40:7*
Ver. 6-7. See Psalms on "Ps 40:7" for further information.
Ver. 6-10. See Psalms on "Ps 40:6" for further information.
Ver. 6-8. The Lord gives an ear to hear his word, a mouth to confess it, a heart to love it, and power to keep it.
Ver. 6-10. See Psalms on "Ps 40:6" for further information.
Ver. 6-8. The Lord gives an ear to hear his word, a mouth to confess it, a heart to love it, and power to keep it.
Ver. 6-10. See Psalms on "Ps 40:6" for further information.
Ver. 6-10. See Psalms on "Ps 40:6" for further information.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv6, 8Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears…
Psa_40:6-7
Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering hast Thou not required.
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Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me.
Christ the only sufficient sacrifice
Among the many irrefragable proofs that we belong to a fallen race, is the misconstruction which men have put upon the clearest revelations of the Divine will. The Lord had appointed that, in their approaches to Him, the Israelites should offer sacrifices as an acknowledgment that their sins could not be remitted without the shedding of blood. The sacrifices both made clear expression of the fearful guilt of sin, and foreshadowed the atonement Christ should make for the transgressions of His people. But the Jews, as a nation, were not impressed with horror of sin, neither were their thoughts led forward to the promised Redeemer. In their shameful misconceptions of the Divine character, they often impiously imagined that, if any of them committed a trespass, he had no more to do than to kill a bullock or a sheep, in sacrifice, and his guilt would be forgiven him.
I. What kind of atonement is required. It must be costly, for mans guilt is great. Hence--
1. It must be equivalent in value to the souls of the redeemed. Such is the stern doom of justice: else man cannot be saved.
2. There must be a connection between those for whom the atonement is offered and the party who suffers.
3. He who was to die for man must be innocent. No halt or maimed victim could be accepted in the ancient sacrifices: it must be perfect. But how could man furnish a perfect sacrifice for sin?
4. The victim must be willing. An involuntary, forced sacrifice would be cruel tyranny.
II. How all the qualities requisite for a perfect atonement have met in Christ.
1. There was sufficiency in value, for Christ was the Son of God.
2. He had connection with these for whom He died; for He was man as well as God.
3. He was perfectly innocent--He did no sin.
4. He was a willing victim. (George Innes.)
Jesus the true Messiah
I. It is intimated that, whenever the Messiah should come, the sacrifices and ceremonies of the mosaic law were to be superseded by him. Jewish writers contend for the perpetuity of the ceremonial as well as of the moral law; but in this they are opposed, both by Scripture and by fact.
1. As to Scripture (1Sa_15:22; Psa_50:7-15; Psa_51:16-17; Isa_1:11-12; Jer_7:21-23; Dan_9:27; Jer_31:31-34; Heb_8:13; Heb_10:17-18).
2. Whether Messiah the Prince be come or not, sacrifice and oblation have ceased. We believed they virtually ceased when Jesus offered Himself a sacrifice, and in a few years after they actually ceased.
II. It is suggested that, whenever Messiah should come, the great body of scripture prophecy should be accomplished in him. In the volume, etc.
1. The time when Messiah should come is clearly marked out in prophecy (Gen_49:10; Hag_2:6-9; Dan_9:24-27).
2. The place where Messiah should be born, and where He should principally impart His doctrine, is determined (Mic_5:2; Isa_9:2).
3. The house or family from whom Messiah should descend is clearly ascertained.
4. The kind of miracles that Messiah should perform is specified (Isa_35:5-6).
5. It was predicted of Messiah that He should, as a King, be distinguished by His lowliness, entering into Jerusalem, not in a chariot of state, but in a much humbler style (Zec_9:9).
6. It is predicted of Messiah that He should suffer and die by the hands of wicked men (Isa_49:7; Isa_53:9; Dan_9:26).
7. It was foretold that the Messiah, after being cut off out of the land of the living and laid in the grave, should rise from the dead.
8. It was foretold that the great body of the Jewish nation would not believe in Him; and that He would set up His kingdom among the Gentiles (Isa_53:1; Isa_49:4-6).
III. It is declared, that when the Messiah should come, the will of God would be perfectly fulfilled by him. I delight to do Thy will. The will of God sometimes denotes what He approves, and sometimes what He appoints. The first is the rule of our conduct, the last of His own; and both we affirm to have been fulfilled by Jesus. (A. Fuller.)
Lo, I come
I. The sweeping away of the shadow.
1. When the Son of God is born into the world, there is an end of all types by which He was formerly prefigured. When the heart is gone out of the externals of worship, they are as shells without the kernel. Habitations without living tenants soon become desolations, and so do forms and ceremonies without their spiritual meaning. Toward the time of our Lords coming, the outward worship of Judaism became more and more dead: it was time that it was buried.
2. As these outward things vanish, they go away with Gods mark of non-esteem upon them: they are such things as He did not desire. The spiritual, the infinite, the almighty Jehovah could not desire merely outward ritual, however it might appear glorious to men. The sweetest music is not for His ear, nor the most splendid robes of priests for His eye. He desired something infinitely more precious than these, and He puts them away with this note of dissatisfaction.
3. They were so put away as never to be followed by the same kind of things. Shadows are not replaced by other shadows.
II. The revelation of thy Substance.
1. The Lord Himself comes, even He who is all that these things foreshadowed.
(1) When He comes He has a prepared ear. The margin hath it, Mine ears hast Thou digged. Our ears often need digging; for they are blocked up by sin. The passage to the heart seems to be sealed in the case of fallen man. But when the Saviour came, His ear was not as ours, but was attentive to the Divine voice.
(2) He came also with a prepared body (Heb_10:5).
2. He who assumed that body was existent before that body was prepared. He says, A body hast Thou prepared me. Lo, I come. He from old eternity dwelt with God: the Word was in the beginning with God, and the Word was God. He was before all worlds, and was before He came into the world to dwell in His prepared body.
3. The human nature of Christ was taken on Him in order that He might be able to do for us that which God desired and required. An absolutely perfect righteousness He renders unto God; as the second Adam, He presents it for all whom He represents.
III. The declaration of the Christ made in the text. Lo, I come.
1. Observe when He says this. It is in the time of failure.
2. When our Lord comes, it is with the view of filling up the vacuum which had now been sorrowfully seen. He gives to man in reality what he had lost in the shadow.
3. When He appears, it is as the personal Lord--the Infinite Ego. Everything is stored up in His blessed person, and we are complete in Him.
4. Observe the joyful avowal that He makes. This is no dirge; I think I hear a silver trumpet ring out, Lo, I come.
5. He comes with a word calling attention to it; for He is not ashamed to be made partaker of our flesh. Others have cried to you, Lo, here! and Lo, there; but Jesus looks on you, and cries, Lo, I come. Look hither; turn all your thoughts this way, and behold your God in your nature ready to save you.
6. I hear in this declaration of the coming One a note of finality. He is the fulfilment of all the requirements of the human race, as well as the full amount of what God requires.
IV. The reference to preceding writings. He says, to, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me. If I preached from the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, I might fairly declare that in the whole volume of Holy Scripture much is written of our Lord and prescribed for Him as Messiah. Preaching as I am from the Psalms, I cannot take so long a range. I must look back and find what was written in Davids day, and within the Pentateuch certainly; and whore do I find it written concerning His coming? The Pentateuch drips with prophecies of Christ as a honeycomb overflowing with its honey.
V. The delight of him that cometh.
1. He came in complete subserviency to His Father. Though high as the highest, tie stooped low as the lowest.
2. He had a prospective delight as to His work (Pro_8:31).
3. He had an actual delight in His coming among men. To Him it was joy to be in sorrow, and honour to be put to shame. Do you think that lightens our estimate of His self-denial and disinterestedness? Nay, it adds weight to it. Some people fancy that there is no credit in doing a thing unless you are miserable in doing it. Nay, that is the very reverse. Obedience which is unwillingly offered and causes no joy in the soul, is not acceptable. We must serve God with our heart, or we do not serve Him.
4. Need I tell you what must be the delight, the heavenly joy of our Lord, now that the work is finished? He is now the focus, the centre, the source of bliss. What must be His own delight! We often say of the angels that they rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. What means the presence of the angels? Why, that the angels see the joy of Christ when sinners repent. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Lo, I come
The times when our Lord says, Lo, I come, have all a family likeness. There are certain crystals which assume a regular shape, and if you break them, each fragment will show the same conformation; if you were to dash them to shivers, every particle of the crystal would be still of the same form. Now, the goings forth of Christ which were of old, and His craning at Calvary, and that great advent when He shall come a second time to judge the earth in righteousness, all these have a likeness the one to the other. But there is a coming of what I may call a lesser sort, when Jesus cries, Lo, I come to each individual sinner, and brings a revelation of pardon and salvation; and this has about it much which is similar to the great ones.
I. The Lord Christ has times of his first comings to men; Then said I, Lo, I come. What are these times? Mayhap some here have reached this season, and this very day is the time of blessing when the text shall be fulfilled: Then said I, Lo, I come. Go with me to the first record in the volume of the Book, when it was said that He should come. You will find it in the early chapter of Genesis.
1. Jesus said, Lo, I come, when mans probation was a failure. Adam being in honour continued not. At that point we read in the volume of the Book that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head. Then our Redeemer said, Lo, I come. Hearken to me; you also have had your probation, as you have thought it to be.
2. When mans clever dealings with the devil had turned out a great failure.
3. When mans covering was a failure.
4. When all mans pleas were failures.
5. When mans religion had proved a failure.
II. Christ comes to sinners in the glory of his person. Lo, I come. What does He mean?
1. He means the setting of all else on one side.
2. Before Him there is a setting of self aside. Lo, he comes to clothe you from head to foot with His own seamless robe of righteousness. He annihilates self that He may fill all things.
3. Here is a glorious setting of Himself at our side and in our place. Jesus is now the one pillar on which to lean, the one foundation on which to build, the one and only rest of our weary souls.
4. He sets Himself where we can see Him; for he cries, Lo, I come; that is to say, See Me come. He comes openly, that we may see Him clearly.
5. Our Lord sets Himself to be permanently our all in all. When He came on earth, He did not leave His work till He had finished it. Even when He rose to glory, He continued His service for His chosen, living to intercede for them. Jesus will be a Saviour until all the chosen race shall have been gathered home.
III. Christ, in his coming, is his own introduction.
1. Here our Lord is His own herald. Lo, I come. He bids you look on Him when you beseech Him to look on you.
2. He comes when quite unsought or sought for in a wrong way. Lo, I come, is the announcement of majestic grace which waiteth not for man, neither tarrieth for the sons of men.
3. Our Lord Jesus is the way to Himself.
4. He is the blessing which He brings.
5. He is His own spokesman.
IV. Christ, to cheer us reveals his reasons for coming.
1. It is His Fathers will.
2. His own heart is set on you.
3. You have need, and He has love, and so He comes.
V. Christs coming is the best plea for our receiving him, and receiving him now. Receive Him! If you are in yourself sadly unready, yet He Himself will make everything ready for Himself. Shut not out your own mercy. A pastor in Edinburgh, in going round his district, knocked at the door of a poor woman, for whom he had brought some needed help; but he received no answer. When next he met her, he said to her, I called on Tuesday at your house. She asked, At what time? . . . About eleven oclock; I knocked, and you did not answer. I was disappointed, for I called to give you help. Ah, sir! said she, I am very sorry. I thought it was the man coming for the rent, and I could not pay it, and therefore I did not dare to go to the door. Many a troubled soul thinks that Jesus is one who comes to ask of us what we cannot give; but indeed He comes to give us all things. His errand is not to condemn, but to forgive. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Delight to do the will of God
I. Some cases in which the christian delights to do the will of God.
1. In the acts and offices of religious worship.
2. In the faithful discharge of those duties which he owes to his fellow-creatures.
3. In the good government of himself, and the practice of temperance and self-denial.
II. Some of the chief fruits or effects of it.
1. Cheerfulness, an habitual vivacity and gladness of heart in the exercise of our moral and religious duties, both in the time of our wealth and in the time of suffering and tribulation.
2. A firm confidence in Gods protection and goodness, a cheerful apprehension of His perpetual presence and overruling providence, and a deep-rooted persuasion of His merciful disposition towards us, and of the truth and excellence of His promises.
3. A humble but stedfast hope of everlasting happiness, grounded on His promises in Christ, and brought home to the mind of the believer in the way of just inference and reasonable collection. (Bishop Bethell.)
Christs delight in the work of redemption
I. Why it ought to be a pleasant and grateful thing to Christ to take a body of flesh and lay it down by death again for the redemption of sinners.
1. It became Christ to go about this work with cheerfulness and delight, that thereby He might give His death the nature and formality of a sacrifice.
2. It ought to be so in regard of the unity of Christs will with the Fathers. The work of our redemption is called the pleasure of the Lord (Isa_53:10), and what was the Fathers pleasure could not be displeasing to Him who is one with the Father.
3. This was necessary to magnify and commend the love of Jesus Christ to us, for whom He gave Himself. That He came into the world to die for us is a mercy of the first magnitude, but that He came in love to our souls, and underwent all His sufferings with such willingness for our sakes, this heightens it above all apprehension.
4. It was necessary to be so for the regulating of all our obedience to God according to this pattern, that seeing and setting this great example of obedience before us, we might never grudge nor grumble at any duty or suffering that God should call us to.
II. Whence it came to re so pleasant and acceptable to Jesus Christ to come into the world and die for poor sinners.
1. That in His sufferings there would be made a glorious display and manifestation of the Divine attributes; yea, such a glorious display of them as was never made before to angels or to men, nor ever shall be any more in this world.
(1) For though the wisdom of God had made itself visible to men in the creation of the world, yet there it shone, but in a faint and languishing beam compared with this.
(2) The love of God had appeared before in our creation, protection and provision, yet nothing to what it doth in our redemption by the death of Christ.
(3) God had given several sad marks of His justice before, both upon the angels that fell, and in the overthrow of Sodom, etc.; yet never was the exactness and severity of justice so manifested before, nor ever shall be any more, as it was at the death of Christ.
2. Another delightful prospect Christ had of the fruit of His sufferings was the recovery and salvation of all the elect by His death; and though His sufferings were exceeding bitter, yet such fruit of them as this was exceeding sweet; upon this account He assumed his name Jesus (Mat_1:21), yea, and His human nature also (Gal_4:4-5).
3. The glory which would redound to Him from His redeemed ones to all eternity; for it will be the everlasting pleasant employment of the saints in heaven to be ascribing glory, praise and honour to the Redeemer. (John Flavel.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v7the scroll of the document
the scroll of the document
This refers to a scroll on which was written the word of Yahweh. AT: "the written scroll" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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your laws are in my heart
Here "my heart" refers to the inner being of the writer. AT: "I am always thinking about your laws within my inner being" (See: Metonymy)
I have proclaimed good news of your righteousness in the great assembly
"I have told a large assembly of people the good news of your righteousness."
good news of your righteousness
This refers to the good news that God rescues his people. AT: "good news that because you are righteous, you rescue your people" (See: Ellipsis)
my lips have not kept back from doing this
Here "my lips" represents the writer, emphasizing his speech. AT: "I have not stopped myself from proclaiming these things" (See: Metonymy)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv6–740:6 The Lord delights in the attitude and character…
40:6 The Lord delights in the attitude and character of the person making an offering more than in the offering itself. • Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand: Greek text reads You have given me a body. In Heb 10:5-7, the writer quotes from the Greek version of Ps 40:6-8. He casts the words as something Jesus said as he left heaven and came into the world.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv6–7 6 In sacrifice and oblation thou hast not taken…
6 In sacrifice and oblation thou hast not taken pleasure. Here David offers not only the sacrifice of praise, or, as the prophet Hosea calls it, (Hosea 14:2,) “the calves of the lips,” but, in token of his gratitude, offers and consecrates himself entirely to God; as if he had said, I am now wholly devoted to God, because, having been delivered by his wonderful power, I am doubly indebted to him for my life. At the same time, treating of the true worship of God, he shows that it consists not in outward ceremonies, but rather that it is spiritual. Accordingly, the meaning is, that he came into the presence of God not only in the outward pomp or ceremony and figures of the law, but that he brought with him the true devotion of the heart. We know, indeed, that all men have some sense of religion impressed upon their hearts, so that no one dares to withdraw openly and wholly from his service, and yet the greater part of men turn aside into winding and crooked paths; and hence it happens, that in serving God in a perfunctory manner, their worship is scarcely anything else than a mockery of him. We see then the reason why David, on the present occasion, shows in what the true worship of God consists; it is, that he may distinguish between himself and hypocrites, who draw near to God with their lips only, or at least seek to pacify him with cold and unmeaning ceremonies.
We now come to the exposition of the words. I have no doubt that David, under the four different kinds of sacrifices which he here enumerates, comprehends all the sacrifices of the law. His meaning, to express it in a few words, is, that God requires not mere ceremonies of those who serve him, but that he is satisfied only with sincerity of heart, with faith and holiness of life: and that he takes no pleasure merely in the visible sanctuary, the altar, the burning of incense, the killing of beasts, the lights, the costly apparel, and outward washings. From this he concludes, that he ought to be guided by another principle, and to observe another rule in the service of God, than a mere attention to these — that he should yield himself wholly to God.
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Thou hast bored my ears. Some think that in using this form of expression, David has a reference to the ordinance under the Law of which we read in Exodus 21:6. If any bond-servant, when the time of his being discharged from servitude had arrived, made no account of his freedom, he was brought to the public place of judgment, and having there declared that he wished to continue in servitude, his master pierced his ear with an awl, as a mark of perpetual bondage. But this mode of interpretation appears to be too forced and refined. Others more simply consider that it is of the same meaning as to render fit, or qualify for service, for David mentions not one ear only, but both. Men, we know, are naturally deaf, because they are so dull, that their ears are stopped until God pierce them. By this expression, therefore, is denoted the docility to which we are brought and moulded by the grace of the Holy Spirit. I, however, apply this manner of expression more closely to the scope of the passage before us, and explain it in this sense, That David was not slow and dull of hearing, as men usually are, so that he could discern nothing but what was earthly in the sacrifices, but that his ears had been cleansed, so that he was a better interpreter of the Law, and able to refer all the outward ceremonies to the spiritual service of God. He encloses the sentence, Thou hast bored my ears, as it were, in parenthesis, whilst he is treating professedly of sacrifices, so that the sentence might be explained in this way: Lord, thou hast opened my ears, that I may distinctly understand whatever thou hast commanded concerning the sacrifices, namely, that of themselves they afford thee no pleasure: for thou, who art a Spirit, takest no delight in these earthly elements, and hast no need of flesh or blood; and, therefore, thou requirest something of a higher and more excellent nature. If, however, it is objected that sacrifices were offered by the express commandment of God, I have just said that David here distinguishes between the spiritual service of God, and that which consisted in outward types and shadows. And in making this comparison, it is no great wonder to find him saying that the sacrifices are of no value, since they were only helps designed to lead men to true piety, and tended to a far higher end than that which was at first apparent. Seeing, then, God made use of these elements, only to lead his people to the exercises of faith and repentance, we conclude that he had no delight in being worshipped by sacrifices. We must always bear in mind, that whatever is not pleasing to God for its own sake, but only in so far as it leads to some other end, if it be put in the place of his true worship and service is rejected and cast away by him.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv6–7 Thou hast opened mine ears to understand the spiritual…
Thou hast opened mine ears to understand the spiritual meaning of the sacrifices: and here David esteemeth the ceremonies of the law nothing in respect of the spiritual service.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Psa 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire;…
Psa 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
Ver. 6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire] Comparatively to the obedience of faith, 1Sa 15:22, without which, when hypocrites thought to bribe God by cold ceremonies, they were rejected. Christ is the end of the law to all that believe; that Lamb of God, slain from the beginning of the world, is the only expiatory sacrifice, and the foundation of that fore-mentioned blessedness, Psa 40:4. Now, since Christ suffered, the Levitical sacrifices being abolished, we have none to offer but such as are gratulatory, to show our thankfulness for such a Redeemer, whose perfect obedience, with the fruit of it, is here and in the following verses both described, and set forth for an absolute pattern to us of performing our duty toward God, for this inexplicable mercy. Confer Heb 10:5-6, &c. Here we have in Christ for our instruction, and in David also (his type) for our example, 1. A firm purpose of obedience, in a bored ear add a yielding heart. 2. A ready performance thereof, "Lo, I come." 3. A carefull observance of the word written, "In the volume of thy book it is written of me," Psa 40:7 4. A hearty delight in that observance, Psa 40:8 5. A public profession and communication of God’s goodness to others, Psa 40:9-10 (D. Ames). Now, we should labour to express Christ to the world, to walk as he walked, 1Jn 2:6; our lives should be in some sense parallel with his life, as the transcript with the original. He left us a copy to write by, saith St Peter, 1Pe 2:21
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Mine ears hast thou opened] Heb. digged, bored; a hearing ear hast thou bestowed upon me, which is a singular favour; for life entereth by the ear, Isa 55:3, as did death at first, Gen 3:19 Oh, pray that God would make the bore wide enough; that the inward ears being drawn up to the outward, one sound may pierce both at once.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv6–8 These words may in an improper sense belong to…
These words may in an improper sense belong to the person and time of David; when God might be said not to desire or require legal sacrifices comparatively, as negative expressions are frequently understood, as Mat 9:13; 1Co 1:17, and in this very case of sacrifices, as Psa 51:16; Jer 7:22,23; Ho 6:6. So the sense is, Thou didst desire obedience more or rather than sacrifices, as was said, 1Sa 15:22. But in a proper and literal and full sense they belong only to the person and times of the Messias, in whose name David uttereth these words. And so the sense of the place is, God did not desire or require them for the satisfaction of his own justice, and the expiation of men’s sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, as is said, Heb 10:4-6; but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his Father’s will, as it here follows, Psa 40:7,8. So here is a prediction concerning the cessation and abolition of the legal sacrifices, and the substitution of a better instead of them.
Mine ears hast thou opened, Heb. bored. The sense is either,
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1. Whereas many men have no ears to hear, as is implied, Rev 2:7,11,17, or stop their ears, as Psa 58:4; Zec 7:11, thou hast given me open ears to hear and obey thy precepts, as this phrase is used, Isa 1:5, although indeed there is another verb in that text, which much alters the case. Or,
2. I have wholly devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as such, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears, according to the law and custom in that case, Exo 21:5,6; Deu 15:17. And whereas only one ear was then bored, and here it is ears, this may be either an ensilage of the plural number for the singular, whereof divers instances have been given; or else it may be so expressed emphatically, to intimate that Christ was more strictly obliged to a more universal obedience, not only active, to which the legal servants were bound, but passive also, to be obedient even unto the death, to which they were not obliged. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb 10:5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me; wherein though the words differ, the sense is the same; for the ears suppose a body to whom they belong, and the preparing of a body implies the preparing Or disposing of the ears, and the obligation of the person for whom a body was prepared to serve him who prepared it; which the boring of the ear signifies.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v6 The psalmist, being struck with amazement at the wonderful…
The psalmist, being struck with amazement at the wonderful works that God had done for his people, is strangely carried out here to foretel that work of wonder which excels all the rest and is the foundation and fountain of all, that of our redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. God's thoughts, which were to us-ward concerning that work, were the most curious, the most copious, the most gracious, and therefore to be most admired. This paragraph is quoted by the apostle (Heb 10:5, etc.) and applied to Christ and his undertaking for us. As in the institutions, so in the devotions, of the Old Testament saints were aware of; and, when the apostle would show us the Redeemer's voluntary undertaking of his work, he does not fetch his account out of the book of God's secret counsels, which belong not to us, but from the things revealed. Observe,
I. The utter insufficiency of the legal sacrifices to atone for sin in order to our peace with God and our happiness in him: Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; thou wouldst not have the Redeemer to offer them. Something he must have to offer, but not these (Heb 8:3); therefore he must not be of the house of Aaron, Heb 7:14. Or, In the days of the Messiah burnt-offering and sin-offering will be no longer required, but all those ceremonial institutions will be abolished. But that is not all: even while the law concerning them was in full force it might be said, God did not desire them, nor accept them, for their own sake. They could not take away the guilt of sin by satisfying God's justice. The life of a sheep, which is so much inferior in value to that of a man (Mat 12:12), could not pretend to be an equivalent, much less an expedient to preserve the honour of God's government and laws and repair the injury done to that honour by the sin of man. They could not take away the terror of sin by pacifying the conscience, nor the power of sin by sanctifying the nature; it was impossible, Heb 9:9; Heb 10:1-4. What there was in them that was valuable resulted from their reference to Jesus Christ, of whom they were types - shadows indeed, but shadows of good things to come, and trials of the faith and obedience of God's people, of their obedience of God's people, of their obedience to the law and their faith in the gospel. But the substance must come, which is Christ, who must bring that glory to God and that grace to man which it was impossible those sacrifices should ever do.
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II. The designation of our Lord Jesus to the work and office of Mediator: My ears hast thou opened. God the Father disposed him to the undertaking (Isa 50:5, Isa 50:6) and then obliged him to go through with it. My ear hast thou digged. It is supposed to allude to the law and custom of binding servants to serve for ever by boring their ear to the doorpost; see Exo 21:6. Our Lord Jesus was so in love with his undertaking that he would not go out free from it, and therefore engaged to persevere for ever in it; and for this reason he is able to save us to the uttermost, because he has engaged to serve his Father to the uttermost, who upholds him in it, Isa 42:1.
III. His own voluntary consent to this undertaking: "Then said I, Lo, I come; then, when sacrifice and offering would not do, rather than the work should be undone; I said, Lo, I come, to enter the lists with the powers of darkness, and to advance the interests of God's glory and kingdom." This intimates three things: - 1. That he freely offered himself to this service, to which he was under no obligation at all prior to his own voluntary engagement. It was no sooner proposed to him than, with the greatest cheerfulness, he consented to it, and was wonderfully well pleased with the undertaking. Had he not been perfectly voluntary in it, he could not have been a surety, he could not have been a sacrifice; for it is by this will (this animus offerentis - mind of the offerer) that we are sanctified, Heb 10:10. 2. That he firmly obliged himself to it: "I come; I promise to come in the fulness of time." And therefore the apostle says, "It was when he came into the world that he had an actual regard to this promise, by which he had engaged his heart to approach unto God." He thus entered into bonds, not only to show the greatness of his love, but because he was to have the honour of his undertaking before he had fully performed it. Though the price was not paid, it was secured to be paid, so that he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 3. That he frankly owned himself engaged: He said, Lo, I come, said it all along to the Old Testament saints, who therefore knew him by the title of ho erchomenos - He that should come. This word was the foundation on which they built their faith and hope, and which they looked and longed for the accomplishment of.
IV. The reason why he came, in pursuance of his undertaking - because in the volume of the book it was written of him, 1. In the close rolls of the divine decree and counsel; there it was written that his ear was opened, and he said, Lo, I come; there the covenant of redemption was recorded, the counsel of redemption was recorded, the counsel of peace between the Father and the Son; and to that he had an eye in all he did, the commandment he received of his Father. 2. In the letters patent of the Old Testament. Moses and all the prophets testified of him; in all the volumes of that book something or other was written of him, which he had an eye to, that all might be accomplished, Joh 19:28.
V. The pleasure he took in his undertaking. Having freely offered himself to it, he did not fail, nor was discouraged, but proceeded with all possible satisfaction to himself (Psa 40:8. 9): I delight to do thy will, O my God! It was to Christ his meat and drink to go on with the work appointed to him (Joh 4:34); and the reason here given is, Thy law is within my heart; it is written there, it rules there. It is meant of the law concerning the work and office of the Mediator, what he was to do and suffer; this law was dear to him and had an influence upon him in his whole undertaking. Note, When the law of God is written in our hearts our duty will be our delight.
VI. The publication of the gospel to the children of men, even in the great congregation, Psa 40:9, Psa 40:10. The same that as a priest wrought out redemption for us, as a prophet, by his own preaching first, then by his apostles, and still by his word and Spirit, makes it know to us. The great salvation began to be spoken by the Lord, Heb 2:3. It is the gospel of Christ that is preached to all nations. Observe, 1. What it is that is preached: It is righteousness (Psa 40:9), God's righteousness (Psa 40:10), the everlasting righteousness which Christ has brought in (Dan 9:24); compare Rom 1:16, Rom 1:17. It is God's faithfulness to his promise, and the salvation which had long been looked for. It is God's lovingkindness and his truth, his mercy according to his word. Note, In the work of our redemption we ought to take notice how brightly all the divine attributions shine, and give to God the praise of each of them. 2. To whom it is preached - to the great congregation, Psa 40:9 and again Psa 40:10. When Christ was here on earth he preached to multitudes, thousands at a time. The gospel was preached both to Jews and Gentiles, to great congregations of both. Solemn religious assemblies are a divine institution, and in them the glory of God, in the face of Christ, ought to be both praised to the glory of God and preached for the edification of men. 3. How it is preached - freely and openly: I have not refrained my lips; I have not hid it; I have not concealed it. This intimates that whoever undertook to preach the gospel of Christ would be in great temptation to hide it and conceal it, because it must be preached with great contention and in the face of great opposition; but Christ himself, and those whom he called to that work, set their faces as a flint (Isa 50:7) and were wonderfully carried on in it. It is well for us that they were so, for by this means our eyes come to see this joyful light and our ears to hear this joyful sound, which otherwise we might for ever have perished in ignorance of.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire,.... These were…
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire,.... These were desired, willed, and appointed by God, and that very early, even from the times of our first parents; and, when performed aright, were acceptable to God, quite down to the times of the Messiah: indeed, when offered without faith in Christ, and with a wicked mind, to merit any thing at the hand of God, they were always abominable to him; and he likewise ever preferred love to himself, and of the neighbour, obedience to the commands of the moral law, and works of mercy to men, before all the sacrifices of the ceremonial law, Sa1 15:22; nor were these ever in such esteem with him as the sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart, or of praise and thanksgiving, Psa 51:16; nor were they ever regarded by him but as they respected Christ; nor were they ever designed to cleanse from sin, and take it away, but to lead to the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ: but none of these senses have place here: the meaning of the words is, that it was not the will of God, at the time this passage refers to, that legal sacrifices should continue any longer; and that they should not be offered up, even by good men, in the best manner, and to the best ends and purposes; the time being come that a better sacrifice should be offered, which was the sum and substance of them, and was prefigured by them;
mine ears hast thou opened; or "dug", or "bored" (m); in allusion, as is thought by many, to Exo 21:6; though the phrase rather signifies the formation and excavation of the ear; or the preparing and fitting it for its use; that is, to hearken to the will of his heavenly Father, to become man, offer himself a sacrifice, and suffer and die in the room of his people; to which he became obedient, taking upon him the form of a servant, when found in fashion as a man; and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; see Isa 50:4; in Heb 10:5, the words are rendered as by the Septuagint, "but a body hast thou prepared me"; and with it the Arabic and Ethiopic versions agree; and so Apollinarius,
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"flesh of mortal generation;''
a part of the body being put for the whole; and which, indeed, is supposed: for unless a body had been prepared for him, his ears could not have been opened; and it was in the body, in human nature, that he was the obedient servant; and this is to be understood, not only of a preparation of this body, in the purposes, counsel, and covenant of God; but chiefly of the formation of it in the womb of the virgin, where it was curiously wrought and prepared by the Holy, Ghost, that he might have something to offer, and in it become, as he did, an offering and a sacrifice to God, of a sweet smelling savour;
burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required; any longer; this body being prepared for the Messiah to be offered up in.
(m) "fodisti", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus, Michaelis; "perfodisti", Tigurine version, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "perforasti", Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Sacrifice - These and the following words, may in…
Sacrifice - These and the following words, may in an improper sense belong to the time of David; when God might be said, not to desire or require legal sacrifices comparatively. Thou didst desire obedience rather than sacrifices, but in a proper sense, they belong only to the person and times of the Messiah, and so the sense is, God did not desire or require them, for the satisfaction of his own justice, and the expiation of mens sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his father's will, as it here follows, ver. 7, 8. So here is a prediction concerning the cessation of the legal sacrifice, and the substitution of a better instead of them. Opened - Hebrew. bored. I have devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as such, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears, according to the law and custom in that case, Exod. xxi, 5, 6. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb. x, 5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Verse 6. Sacrifice and offering] The apostle, Heb 10:5,…
Verse 6. Sacrifice and offering] The apostle, Heb 10:5, c., quoting this and the two following verses, says, When he (the Messiah) cometh into the world-was about to be incarnated, He saith-to God the Father, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not-it was never thy will and design that the sacrifices under thy own law should be considered as making atonement for sin they were only designed to point out my incarnation and consequent sacrificial death: and therefore a body hast thou prepared me, by a miraculous conception in the womb of a virgin; according to thy word, The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.
A body hast thou prepared me. - The quotation of this and the two following verses by the apostle, Heb 10:5, c., is taken from the Septuagint, with scarcely any variety of reading: but, although the general meaning is the same, they are widely different in verbal expression in the Hebrew. David's words are אזנים כרית לי oznayim caritha lli, which we translate, My ears hast thou opened but they might be more properly rendered, My ears hast thou bored; that is, Thou hast made me thy servant for ever, to dwell in thine own house: for the allusion is evidently to the custom mentioned Ex 21:2, c.: "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free: but if the servant shall positively say, I love my master, c., I will not go out free then his master shall bring him to the doorpost, and shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever."
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But how is it possible that the Septuagint and the apostle should take a meaning so totally different from the sense of the Hebrew? Dr. Kennicott has a very ingenious conjecture here: he supposes that the Septuagint and apostle express the meaning of the words as they stood in the copy from which the Greek translation was made and that the present Hebrew text is corrupted in the word אזנים oznayim, ears, which has been written through carelessness for אז גוה az gevah, THEN, a BODY The first syllable, אז az, THEN, is the same in both; and the latter, נים, which, joined to אז makes אזנים oznayim, might have been easily mistaken for גוה gevah, BODY; נ nun being very like ג gimel; י yod like ו vau; and ה he like final ם mem; especially if the line on which the letters were written in the MS. happened to be blacker than ordinary, which has often been a cause of mistake, it might then have been easily taken for the under-stroke of the mem, and thus give rise to a corrupt reading; add to this, the root כרה carah signifies as well to prepare, as to open, bore, c. On this supposition the ancient copy translated by the Septuagint, and followed by the apostle, must have read the text thus: אז גוה כרית לי az gevah charitha lli; Σωμα δε κατηρτισω μοι· Then a body thou hast prepared me: thus the Hebrew text, the version of the Septuagint, and the apostle, will agree in what is known to be an indisputable fact in Christianity; namely, that Christ was incarnated for the sin of the world.
The AEthiopic has nearly the same reading: the Arabic has both, "A body hast thou prepared me, and mine ears thou hast opened." But the Syriac, the Chaldee, and the Vulgate, agree with the present Hebrew text; and none of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi have any various reading on the disputed words.
It is remarkable, that all the offerings and sacrifices which were considered to be of an atoning or cleansing nature, offered under the law, are here enumerated by the psalmist and the apostle, to show that none of them, nor all of them, could take away sin; and that the grand sacrifice of Christ was that alone which could do it.
Four kinds are here specified, both by the psalmist and the apostle: viz. SACRIFICE, זבח zebach, θυσια; OFFERING, מנחה minchah, προσφορα; BURNT-OFFERING, עולה olah, ολοκαυτωμα; SIN-OFFERING, חטאה chataah, περιαμαρτιας. Of all these we may say, with the apostle, it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats, c. should take away sin.
Thou hast had no pleasure. - Thou couldst never be pleased with the victims under the law thou couldst never consider them as atonements for sin, as they could never satisfy thy justice, nor make thy law honourable.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Psa 40:6. Sacrifice, &c. — These and the four…
Psa 40:6. Sacrifice, &c. — These and the four following verses may, in an improper sense, belong to the person and time of David; when God might be said, not to desire, or require, legal sacrifices, comparatively. So the sense is, Thou didst desire obedience more, or rather, than sacrifices, as was said 1Sa 15:22. But in a proper and full sense, they belong only to the person and time of the Messiah, in whose name David utters these words. And so the sense is, God did not desire or require them for the satisfaction of his own justice and the expiation of men’s sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, as is said Heb 10:4-6; but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his Father’s will, as it here follows, Psa 40:7-8. So here is a prediction concerning the cessation of the legal sacrifices, and the substitution of a better instead of them. Mine ears hast thou opened — Hebrew, bored. I have devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as thy servant, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears, according to the law and custom in that case, Exo 21:5-6. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb 10:5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me. In which translation, though the words differ, the sense is the same; for the ears suppose a body to which they belong, and the preparing of a body implies the preparing of the ears, and the obligation of the person for whom a body was prepared, to serve him who prepared it; which the boring of the ear signified.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Sacrifice and offering - The first of the words…
Sacrifice and offering - The first of the words used here - זבח zebach - means properly a bloody-offering; the other - מנחה minchāh - an offering without blood, as a thank-offering. See the notes at Isa 1:11. The four words employed in this verse - sacrifice, offering, burnt-offering, sin-offering - embrace all the species of sacrifice and offerings known among the Hebrews; and the idea here is, that such offering as they were accustomed to offer was required of him who is here referred to. A higher service was needed.
Thou didst not desire - The word here rendered desire means to incline to, to be favorably disposed, as in reference to doing anything; that is, to will, to desire, to please. The meaning here is, that he did not will this or wish it; he would not be pleased with it in comparison with obedience, or as a substitute for obedience. He preferred obedience to any external rites and forms; to all the rites and forms of religion prescribed by the law. They were of no value without obedience; they could not be substituted in the place of obedience. This sentiment often occurs in the Old Testament, showing that the design of all the rites then prescribed was to bring men to obedience, and that they were of no value without obedience. See the notes at Isa 1:10-20; compare 1Sa 15:22; Psa 51:16-17; Hos 6:6; see also the notes at Heb 10:5.
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Mine ears hast thou opened - Margin: “digged.” The Hebrew word - כרה kârâh - means “to dig;” as, to dig a well, Gen 26:25; to dig a sepulchre, Gen 50:5. As used here this would properly mean, “mine ears hast thou digged out;” that is, thou hast so opened them that there is a communication with the seat of hearing; or, in other words, thou hast caused me to hear this truth, or hast revealed it to me. Compare Isa 50:5, “The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious.” The meaning here would be, that the ear had been opened, so that it was quick to hear. An indisposition to obey the will of God is often expressed by the fact that the ears are “stopped:” Zec 7:11; Psa 58:4-5; Pro 21:13. There is manifestly no allusion here, though that has been supposed by many to be the reference, to the custom of boring through the ear of a servant with an awl, as a sign that he was willing to remain with his master: Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17. In that case the outer circle, or rim of the ear was “bored through” with an awl; here the idea is that of “hollowinq out,” digging, excavating, that is, of making a passage “through,” so that one could hear; not the mere piercing of the outer ear. The essential idea is, that this truth had been communicated to him - that God preferred obedience to sacrifice; and that he had been made attentive to that truth, “as if” he had been before deaf, and his ears had been opened. The principal difficulty in the passage relates to its application in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 10:5. That difficulty arises from the fact that the Septuagint translates the phrase here by the words “a body hast thou prepared me;” and that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews founds an argument on that translation, with reference to the work of the Messiah. On this point, see the notes at Heb 10:5. It is perhaps not now possible to explain this difficulty in a way that will be entirely satisfactory.
burnt-offering - See the notes at Isa 1:11. The uniqueness of this offering was that it was consumed by fire.
And sin-offering - sin-offering was an offering or sacrifice made specifically for sin, with a view to expiate either sin in general, or some specific act of sin. In the Mosaic law there are two kinds of these offerings prescribed; “trespass-offerings,” or offerings for guilt or fault, denoted by the word אשׁם 'âshâm; and sin-offering, denoted by the word used here. They are offerings which were consumed by fire, Lev. 5:1-19; Lev 6:1-7; Lev 14:10. But the essential “idea” was that they were for “sin,” or for some act of guilt. In a general sense, this was true of all bloody offerings or sacrifices; but in these cases the attention of the worshipper was turned particularly to the fact of sin or transgression.
Thou hast not required - That is, thou hast not required them as compared with obedience; in other words, thou hast preferred the latter. These offerings would not meet the case. More was necessary to be done than was implied in these sacrifices. They would not expiate sin; they would not remove guilt; they would not give the conscience peace. A higher work, a work implied in an act of “obedience” of the most exalted kind, was demanded in order to accomplish the work to be done. Compare Psa 51:16.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv6–7 In Paul's view this passage has more meaning than…
In Paul's view this passage has more meaning than the mere expression of grateful devotion to God's service. He represents Christ as declaring that the sacrifices, whether vegetable or animal, general or special expiatory offerings, would not avail to meet the demands of God's law, and that He had come to render the required satisfaction, which he states was effected by "the offering of the body of Christ" [Heb 10:10], for that is the "will of God" which Christ came to fulfil or do, in order to effect man's redemption. We thus see that the contrast to the unsatisfactory character assigned the Old Testament offerings in Psa 40:6 is found in the compliance with God's law (compare Psa 40:7-8). Of course, as Paul and other New Testament writers explain Christ's work, it consisted in more than being made under the law or obeying its precepts. It required an "obedience unto death" [Phi 2:8], and that is the compliance here chiefly intended, and which makes the contrast with Psa 40:6 clear.
mine ears hast thou opened--Whether allusion is made to the custom of boring a servant's ear, in token of voluntary and perpetual enslavement (Exo 21:6), or that the opening of the ear, as in Isa 48:8; Isa 50:5 (though by a different word in Hebrew) denotes obedience by the common figure of hearing for obeying, it is evident that the clause is designed to express a devotion to God's will as avowed more fully in Psa 40:8, and already explained. Paul, however, uses the words, "a body hast thou prepared me" [Heb 10:5], which are found in the Septuagint in the place of the words, "mine ears hast thou opened." He does not lay any stress on this clause, and his argument is complete without it. It is, perhaps, to be regarded rather as an interpretation or free translation by the Septuagint, than either an addition or attempt at verbal translation. The Septuagint translators may have had reference to Christ's vicarious sufferings as taught in other Scriptures, as in Isa 53:4-11; at all events, the sense is substantially the same, as a body was essential to the required obedience (compare Rom 7:4; Pe1 2:24).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv6–8 6. According to Heb_10:5, Psa_40:6-10 are the words of…
6. According to Heb_10:5, Psa_40:6-10 are the words of Christ, or of David speaking in the person of Christ.
Sacrifice… offering… burnt offering… sin offering—The enumeration covers all the offerings necessary to entering into and continuing in covenant with God. The first two are generic terms for bloody and unbloody offerings, the last two specific of bloody sacrifices; the “burnt offering,” עולה, (‘olah,) a self-dedicatory sacrifice, the “sin offering,” חשׂאה, (hhattaah,) an expiation.
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Mine ears hast thou opened—Literally, ears hast thou digged for me. More naturally the mind turns to boring through the ear of the servant, Exo_21:6, as the basis of this metaphor. But a different word occurs there, and the noun (ear) is in the singular, while this is plural. Besides, the import of the passages is not identical. The verb כרה, (karah,) in the text, has the general sense of to dig, as a pit, a wall, a grave, but allows the sense of to uncover, to open, as in the English text. To open the ears is a figurative expression for to awaken attention, as the inlet to the understanding, (Isa_50:4,) the indispensable preparation of a servant in order to perfect obedience. It signifies, also, to reveal, or communicate, as 1Sa_20:3; where “show it me,” is literally, uncover mine ear. See also chapter Psa_22:17; Job_36:10; Job_36:15. The emblematic idea, then, of “mine ears hast thou opened,” is, thou hast revealed to me, caused me to understand, thy most secret will, or mind. The ideas of attentive listening and an inward, hearty obedience, are implied. David’s interior ear had now been opened to receive the will of God in its spiritual sense, and to perceive that animal sacrifice, in itself, was not the ultimate requirement, but the obedience of the heart, of which the ritual form was but the expression. Compare 1Sa_15:22; Psa_51:16-17. The application of all this to Messiah, to whom it primarily refers, (and to David only secondarily,) is made in Heb_10:5-9, where it is quoted in proof of the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, namely, that pardon is obtained only by the death of Christ as a sin offering.
Instead of “mine ears hast thou opened,” the Septuagint gives σωμα κατηρτισω μοι, Thou hast prepared me a body. This, not the Hebrew form, the apostle quotes Heb_10:5, for the reason, says Hammond, “that the apostle attended more to the sense than to the words, and changed it into those words which more fully and perspicuously expressed the mystery of Christ’s incarnation.” G.C. Storr admits that a body hast thou prepared me, may be brought within the general limits of an ad sensum quotation. To this Professor Stuart also agrees. This would be sustained also by the analogy of New Testament quotations from the Old. Bengel thinks the version of the Seventy is an interpretation rather than a translation of the Hebrew text, the “ears,” as a part, being put for the “body.” Moll, also, thinks the Septuagint is an “enlarged and explanatory translation” of the Hebrew. Olshausen calls it a “free translation,” and thinks that the Septuagint might have considered “ears” to be unintelligible, and substituted the more general idea, “Thou hast prepared for me a body.” This view simply takes כרה, (karah,) opened, in the sense of prepared, which is admissible, and by synecdoche the “ears” for the whole body. It is in harmony, also, with the scope both of the psalm and the quotation, for the inadequacy of animal sacrifice with the doctrine of atonement unchanged, naturally suggests a higher expiation which Messiah, in his greater fulfilment of the will of God, relating to pardon by atonement, could accomplish only by taking upon himself a human body. On this plan, therefore, “the incarnation of the Son was a prerequisite to obedience,” (Alexander,) and hence in itself an act of obedience to the will of God touching the redemptive plan. “It was the first and most direct step to his being made a servant.”—Bonar. See note on Heb_10:5
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–8 6. The various kinds of offerings are described according…
6. The various kinds of offerings are described according to their material, as sacrifice of slain animals, and offering (‘meal-offering’) of the fruits of the earth (Lev_2:1 ff.); and according to their purpose, as burnt-offering; symbolising the dedication of the worshipper to God, and sin-offering, for the reconciliation of the offender and the restoration of interrupted communion.
thou didst not desire] R.V. thou hast no delight in. It is the same word as in Psa_40:8, and in the parallel passages Hos_6:6; Isa_1:11; cp. 1Sa_15:22.
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mine ears hast thou opened] Lit. ears hast thou dug (or, pierced) for me. This unique phrase can hardly be an equivalent for the common expression to ‘uncover’ or ‘open the ear,’ to be explained as a parenthetical exclamation that this truth has been impressed upon the Psalmist by a special revelation. It is best to regard it as a statement preparing the way for Psa_40:7, and placed between the two parallel clauses of Psa_40:6 for poetic effect. God has endowed man with the faculty of hearing, and the endowment implies a corresponding duty of obedience. ‘Ears’ need not be limited to the physical organ, but may include ‘the ears of the heart.’ The same Hebr. word means to hear and to obey. Cp. the repeated appeals to Israel to hear; Deu_4:1; Deu_6:4; &c.
The language does not suggest any reference to the custom of boring to the slave’s ear (Exo_21:6; Deu_15:17) in the sense, ‘Thou hast bound me to Thyself for perpetual service.’
hast thou not required] Lit. asked. Cp. Deu_10:12; Mic_6:8.
6–8. True service consists not in material sacrifices but in obedience to the will of God. The stanza is an answer to the implied question, How should man express his gratitude? It affirms the common prophetic doctrine that sacrifice was in itself of no value apart from the dispositions of heart which it was intended to represent. The new commandment of the Exodus was not sacrifice but obedience (Exo_15:26). See Psa_50:7 ff; Psa_51:16 ff.; 1Sa_15:22; Hos_6:6; Mic_6:8; Jer_7:21 ff.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–7 (6) Mine ears hast thou opened.—Literally, Ears hast thou…
(6) Mine ears hast thou opened.—Literally, Ears hast thou dug for me, which can hardly mean anything but “Thou hast given me the sense of hearing.” The words are an echo of 1Sa_15:22. The attentive ear and obedient heart, not formal rites, constitute true worship. Comp. the words so frequent on the lips of Christ, “He that hath ears to hear let him hear.” The fact that the plural ears is used instead of the singular, sets aside the idea of a revelation, which is expressed in Isa_48:8 by “open the ear” and 1Sa_9:15 “uncover the ear.” Not that the idea is altogether excluded, since the outward ears maybe typical of the inward. The same fact excludes allusion to the symbolic act by which a slave was devoted to perpetual servitude (Exo_21:6), because then also only one ear was bored. For the well-known variation in the LXX. see New Testament Commentary, Heb_10:5. The latest commentator, Grätz, is of opinion that the text is corrupt, and emends (comp. Psa_51:16) to, “Shouldest thou desire sacrifice and offering I would select the fattest,” a most desirable result if his arguments, which are too minute for insertion, were accepted.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Will the…
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Will the right return be by sacrifices and burnt offerings? No, the psalmist answers to himself; it is not these which God really "desires." Samuel had already preached the doctrine, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams". (1Sa_15:22) David goes further. Apart from a spirit of obedience, sacrifice and offering are not desired or required at all; rather, as Isaiah says, they are a weariness and an abomination. (Isa_1:11, Isa_1:12) The one thing needed is obedience a cheerful, willing obedience to all that God reveals as his will. Mine ears hast thou opened. Either, "Thou hast taken away my deafness, and given me ears open to receive and embrace thy Law;" or, perhaps, with special reference to Exo_21:6 and Deu_15:17, "Thou hast accepted me as thy voluntary servant, and bored through mine ear, to mark that I am thy servant for ever." Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Of the four kinds of offering mentioned in this verse, the first (jbz) is the ordinary offering of a victim at the altar in sacrifice; the second (hjnm), the meat offering of flour, with oil and frankincense accompanying it; the third (hlw) is the "whole burnt offering," representative of complete self-sacrifice; and the fourth (hafj), the "sin offering," or "trespass offering," of which the special intention was expiation.
Vers. 6-8 (taken along with Heb_10:5-9) The supreme surrender, and its eternal value.
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That some of the psalms are applied to Christ does not warrant us in applying them all to him; and even if some verses of any one psalm are applied to the Messiah, we. are not thereby, warranted in applying all the verses in such psalm to him. There are direct Messianic psalms, which apply only to the Lord Jesus Christ; such are the second and the hundred and tenth psalms. Critics some of them, at least demur to this as being contrary to psychological law. But it is not merely by the psychological law of the natural man that these Messianic psalms are declared to have been written. We are pointed, for their origin, to a fourfold divergence from naturalistic psychology.
1. It is not of psychology we have to think, but of pneumatology.
2. Of the pneumatology of the spiritual man.
3. Of the pneumatology of the spiritual man when "borne along" by the Divine Pneuma.
4. Of such action of the Divine Pneuma on the human for a specific Divine purpose. All this is indicated in 2Pe_1:21; and therefore all such critics as those to which we refer are totally beside the mark. (see our remarks on Ps 32) But there are also psalms which are indirectly Messianic. They are marked, speaking generally, by the pronoun "I" The writer speaks for himself, in the first instance; but whether he knew or intended it or not, the words had such a far-reachingness about them, that they could only be filled up in their perfect meaning by the Lord Jesus Christ. Such is the case with the verses now before us. They first of all apply to David, and it is quite possible that he intended nothing further; if so, unwittingly to himself, he was borne along to utter words whose fulness of meaning could only be disclosed by the Incarnation, by David"s Son, who had eternally been David"s Lord; and, as such, the doctrines they contain are truly sublime. There is a somewhat difficult matter, which may be indicated by the questions:
(1) How came the phrase, "Mine ears hast thou opened," to be rendered by the LXX, "A body hast thou prepared me"? and
(2) whether of the two readings is to be accepted? Dean Alford (see his Commentary, in loc. ) prefers to leave the difficulties unsolved. Dr. J. Fye Smith ("Script. Test.," vol. 1. p. 208), Dr. Boothroyd, and others, with little hesitation, express their conviction that the original and correct phrase is that adopted by the LXX Calmet suggests, "On lit dans l"hebreu antes, peutetre pour corpus autem. " Archdeacon Farrarsays, in his notes on Heb_10:5-7, "Finding the rendering in the LXX, believing it to represent the true sense of the original (as it does), and also seeing it to be eminently illustrative of his subject, the writer naturally adopts it." On the whole, then, the variation presents an interesting point in textual criticism, rather than any doctrinal difficulty. Since, in either case, the substantial meaning is, "My bodily frame has been marked out and sealed for the performance of thy will." By the very frequent quotation from the LXX rather than from the Hebrew, even when they vary, the sacred writers show how much more important in their view was the main thought than the precise form of expression. Having, then, in two separate homilies, dealt with this psalm in its application to David, we will now luxuriate in these verses as finding their highest and noblest application in Christ, and in him alone. In so doing, eight lines of thought require to be laid down.
I THERE IS A MOMENTOUS PRINCIPLE UNDERLYING BOTH THE HEBREW AND THE CHRISTIAN ECONOMIES. It is this that sin has disturbed the relations between man and God, so that nothing is right with man till these relations are readjusted and harmony is restored. The whole of the Mosaic economy was an education in the evil of sin. "By Law is the knowledge of sin"; (Rom_3:20) "The Law was our child-guide unto Christ". (Gal_3:24)
II UNDER THE LAW, THE PEOPLE WERE TAUGHT THAT SIN MUST BE PUT AWAY BY SACRIFICE. "Without shedding of blood is no remission". (Heb_9:22) But there will ever remain this wide, this infinite, difference between Jewish and pagan sacrifices the pagan sacrifices started from man, and expressed his desire to propitiate God; the Jewish sacrifices were appointed by God himself, as by One pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin, who would cancel guilt only as sin had been condemned.
III THE VARIED SACRIFICES UNDER THE LAW WERE BUT A "FIGURE FOR THE TIME THEN PRESENT." The doctrine of the insufficiency of fleshly sacrifices is found not only in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but also in the Old Testament. (see 1Sa_15:22,-23 Psa_51:16 Psa_40:6-8 Isa_1:11-17 Jer_7:22, 23 Mic_6:6-8) The more discerning and spiritually minded of the Hebrew saints saw and felt how ineffective were all the varied offeringsto ensure peace with God; and, because ineffective, they were necessarily typical Hence
IV THE OLD TESTAMENT DISPENSATION WAS IN ITS ENTIRETY BUT PROPHETIC OF ONE WHO SHOULD COME. (Cf. Luk_24:44 Act_17:2, 3 28:23 Dan_9:24-27) The entire argument in Hebrews 9. and 10. shows this. From the time when he who saw Messiah"s day from afar said, "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering," the outlook of the Church of God was towards One "who should come into the world.
V THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, IN THE FACT OF HIS INCARNATION, DECLARED THAT BE HAD COME TO ACCOMPLISH THE UNFULFILLED MEANING OF OLD TESTAMENT SACRIFICES. We are not told here that he said this by his Spirit in the fortieth psalm, but that "when he came into the world" he said it. His entrance into our race was itself the great declaration. That act of "emptying himself" spake volumes then, and will do through all time; and thus he put upon the ancient words the sublimest possible significance.
VI IN ACCOMPLISHING TYPE AND PROPHECY, JESUS FULFILLED THE WORD OF GOD. His advent to earth was an absolute self-surrender to the Father"s will. (cf. Joh_4:34 Joh_6:38) He fulfilled the Father"s will
(1) by revealing the Father;
(2) by honouring the Law;
(3) by condemning sin;
(4) by thus laying a basis for the forgiveness of every penitent.
VII ON THE GROUND OF THIS SURRENDER OF HIMSELF, SIN IS PUT AWAY. "He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself". (Heb_9:26) The absolute surrender of the will of the Eternal Son to the Eternal Father accomplished, in fact, that which all past sacrifices had accomplished only in figure. The surrender of that will ensured the fulfilment of all the purposes for which that will was surrendered. "He hath obtained the eternal redemption for us". (Heb_9:12; see Joh_6:38-40)
VIII SIN HAVING BEEN PUT AWAY FOR EVER, THE ANCIENT SACRIFICES HAVE CEASED FOR EVER. "He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second"; (Heb_10:9) "By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Any pretended repetition of the Saviour"s sacrifice in the Mass is impiety. No repetition of it is possible. All Old Testament sacrifices have ceased; the Old Testament priesthood has ceased, and has never been renewed. Note: What now remains for us? Only
(1) to accept the one offering of the Son of God as all-sufficient; and
(2) to render now the only sacrifice which is possible for us, viz. the loving, the absolute surrender of our will to him who hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, that we may stand perfect add complete in all the will of God. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Ver. 6. Here we enter upon one of the…
Ver. 6. Here we enter upon one of the most wonderful passages in the whole of the Old Testament, a passage in which the incarnate Son of God is seen not through a glass darkly, but as it were face to face. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. In themselves considered, and for their own sakes, the Lord saw nothing satisfactory in the various offerings of the ceremonial law. Neither the victim pouring forth its blood, nor the fine flour rising in smoke from the altar, could yield content to Jehovah's mind; he cared not for the flesh of bulls or of goats, neither had he pleasure in corn and wine, and oil. Typically these offerings had their worth, but when Jesus, the Antitype, came into the world, they ceased to be of value, as candles are of no estimation when the sun has arisen. Mine ears hast thou opened. Our Lord was quick to hear and perform his Father's will; his ears were as if excavated down to his soul; they were not closed up like Isaac's wells, which the Philistines filled up, but clear passages down to the fountains of his soul. The prompt obedience of our Lord is here the first idea. There is, however, no reason whatever to reject the notion that the digging of the ear here intended may refer to the boring of the ear of the servant, who refused out of love to his master to take his liberty, at the year of jubilee; his perforated ear, the token of perpetual service, is a true picture of our blessed Lord's fidelity to his Father's business, and his love to his Father's children. Jesus irrevocably gave himself up to be the servant of servants for our sake and God's glory. The Septuagint, from which Paul quoted, has translated this passage, "A body hast thou prepared me:" how this reading arose it is not easy to imagine, but since apostolical authority has sanctioned the variation, we accept it as no mistake, but as an instance of various readings equally inspired. In any case, the passage represents the Only Begotten as coming into the world equipped for service; and in a real and material body, by actual life and death, putting aside all the shadows of the Mosaic law. Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Two other forms of offerings are here mentioned; tokens of gratitude and sacrifices for sin as typically presented are set aside; neither the general nor the private offerings are any longer demanded. What need of mere emblems when the substance itself is present? We learn from this verse that Jehovah values far more the obedience of the heart than all the imposing performances of ritualistic worship; and that our expiation from sin comes not to us as the result of an elaborate ceremonial, but as the effect of our great Substitute's obedience to the will of Jehovah.
Ver. 6. Sacrifice and offering...burnt offering and sin offering. Four kinds are here specified, both by the psalmist and apostle: namely, sacrifice (xbz) zebhach, yusia; offering, (hxnm) minchah, prosfora; burnt offering, (hlwe) olah, olokautwma; sin offering, (hajx) chataah, peri amartias. Of all these we may say with the apostle, it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats, etc., should take away sin. Adam Clarke.
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Ver. 6. Mine ears hast thou opened. The literal translation is, mine ears hast thou digged (or pierced) through; which may well be interpreted as meaning, "Thou hast accepted me as thy slave, " in allusion to the custom Ex 21:6 of masters boring the ear of a slave, who had refused his offered freedom, in token of retaining him. Daniel Cresswell.
Ver. 6. John Calvin, in treating upon the interpretation, "mine ears hast thou bored, "says, "this mode of interpretation appears to be too forced and refined."
Ver. 6. Mine ears hast thou opened. If it is to be said that the apostle to the Hebrews read this differently, I answer, this does not appear to me. It is true, he found a different, but corrupted translation (wtia, ears, as the learned have observed, having been changed into swma, body) in the LXX, which was the version then in use; and he was obliged to quote it as he found it, under the penalty, if he altered it, of being deemed a false quoter. He therefore took the translation as he found it, especially as it served to illustrate his argument equally well. Upon this quotation from the LXX the apostle argues, Ps 40:9, "He, (Christ) taketh away the first (namely, legal sacrifices), that he may establish the second" (namely, obedience to God's will), in offering himself a sacrifice for the sins of mankind; and thus he must have argued upon a quotation for the Hebrew text as it stands at present. Green, quoted in S. Burder's "Scripture Expositor."
Ver. 6. The apostle's reading Heb 10:5, though it be far distant from the letter of the Hebrew, and in part from the LXX (as I suppose it to have been originally), yet is the most perspicuous interpretation of the meaning of it: Christ's body comprehended the ears, and that assumed on purpose to perform in it the utmost degree of obedience to the will of God, to be obedient even to death, and thereby to be as the priest. Henry Hammond.
Ver. 6.
Nor sacrifice thy love can win,
Nor offerings from the stain of sin
Obnoxious man shall clear:
Thy hand my mortal frame prepares,
(Thy hand, whose signature it bears,)
And opens my willing ear. James Merrick, M.A., 1720-1769.
Ver. 6-7. In these words an allusion is made to a custom of the Jews to bore the ears of such as were to be their perpetual servants, and to enrol their names in a book, or make some instrument of the covenant. "Sacrifices and burnt offerings thou wouldst not have; "but because I am thy vowed servant, bored with an awl, and enrolled in thy book, I said, Lo, I come; I delight to do thy will, O my God. These words of the Psalm are alleged by S. Paul, Hebrews 10. But the first of them with a most strange difference. For whereas the psalmist hath, according to the Hebrew verity, Sacrifice and burnt offering thou wouldst not: mine ears thou hast bored or digged, (tyrn); S. Paul reads with the LXX, swma kathrtisw moi, "A body thou hast prepared or fitted me." What equipollency can be in sense between these two? This difficulty is so much the more augmented because most interpreters make the life of the quotation to lie in those very words where the difference is, namely, That the words, "A body thou hast prepared me, "are brought by the apostle to prove our Saviour's incarnation; whereunto the words in the Psalm itself (Mine ears hast thou bored, or digged, or opened), take them how you will in no wise suit. I answer, therefore, That the life of the quotation lies not in the words of difference, nor can do, because this epistle was written to the Hebrews, and so first in the Hebrew tongue, where this translation of the LXX could have no place. And if the life of the quotation lay here, I cannot see how it can possibly be reconciled. It lies therefore in the words where there is no difference, namely, That Christ was such a High Priest as came to sanctify us, not with the legal offerings and sacrifices, but by his obedience in doing like a devoted servant the will of his Father. Thus, the allegation will not depend at all upon the words of difference, and so they give us liberty to reconcile them: Mine ears hast thou bored, saith the psalmist, i.e., Thou hast accepted me for a perpetual servant, as masters are wont, according to the law, to bore such servants' ears as refuse to part from them. Now the LXX, according to whom the apostle's epistle readeth, thinking perhaps the meaning of this speech would be obscure to such as knew not that custom, chose rather to translate it generally swma de katertisw moi, "Thou hast fitted my body, "namely, to be thy servant, in such a manner as servants' bodies are wont to be. And so the sense is all one, though not specified to the Jewish custom of boring the ear with an awl, but left indifferently applicable to the custom of any nation in marking and stigmatising their servants' bodies. Joseph Mede, B.D., 1586-1638.
Ver. 6-10. Here we have in Christ for our instruction, and in David also (his type) for our example; 1. A firm purpose of obedience, in a bored ear, and a yielding heart. 2. A ready performance thereof: Lo, I come. 3. A careful observance of the word written: In the volume of the Book it is written of me, Ps 40:7. 4. A hearty delight in that observance, Ps 40:8.
5. A public profession and communication of God's goodness to others, Ps 40:9-10. Now, we should labour to express Christ to the world, to walk as he walked 1Jo 2:6: our lives should be in some sense parallel with his life, as the transcript with the original: he left us a copy to write by, saith St. Peter, 1Pe 2:21. John Trapp.
Ver. 6. Here David goes beyond himself, and speaks the language of David's Son. This was naturally suggested by God's wonderful works, and innumerable thoughts of love to man.
1. The sacrifices that were not required. These were the sacrifices and burnt offerings under the law.
1. When required? From Adam to the coming of Christ.
2. When not required?
3. Why required before? As types of the one method of redemption.
4. Why not now required? Because the great Antitype had come.
2. The sacrifice that was required. This was the sacrifice offered on Calvary.
1. It was required by God by his justice, his wisdom, his faithfulness, his love, his honour, his glory.
2. It was required by man to give him salvation and confidence in that salvation.
3. It was required for the honour of the moral government of God throughout the universe.
3. The person by whom this sacrifice was offered. Mine ears hast thou opened. This is the language of Christ, prospectively denoting
1. Knowledge of the sacrifice required.
2. Consecration of himself as a servant for that end.
George Rogers.
Ver. 6. Mine ears hast thou opened. Readiness to hear, fixity of purpose, perfection of obedience, entireness of consecration.
Ver. 6-8. The Lord gives an ear to hear his word, a mouth to confess it, a heart to love it, and power to keep it.
James Merrick, M.A., 1720-1769.
Psalms 40:7*
Ver. 6-7. See Psalms on "Ps 40:7" for further information.
Ver. 6-10. See Psalms on "Ps 40:6" for further information.
Ver. 6-8. The Lord gives an ear to hear his word, a mouth to confess it, a heart to love it, and power to keep it.
Ver. 6-10. See Psalms on "Ps 40:6" for further information.
Ver. 6-8. The Lord gives an ear to hear his word, a mouth to confess it, a heart to love it, and power to keep it.
Ver. 6-10. See Psalms on "Ps 40:6" for further information.
Ver. 6-10. See Psalms on "Ps 40:6" for further information.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv6, 8 Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears…
Psa_40:6-7
Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering hast Thou not required.
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Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me.
Christ the only sufficient sacrifice
Among the many irrefragable proofs that we belong to a fallen race, is the misconstruction which men have put upon the clearest revelations of the Divine will. The Lord had appointed that, in their approaches to Him, the Israelites should offer sacrifices as an acknowledgment that their sins could not be remitted without the shedding of blood. The sacrifices both made clear expression of the fearful guilt of sin, and foreshadowed the atonement Christ should make for the transgressions of His people. But the Jews, as a nation, were not impressed with horror of sin, neither were their thoughts led forward to the promised Redeemer. In their shameful misconceptions of the Divine character, they often impiously imagined that, if any of them committed a trespass, he had no more to do than to kill a bullock or a sheep, in sacrifice, and his guilt would be forgiven him.
I. What kind of atonement is required. It must be costly, for mans guilt is great. Hence--
1. It must be equivalent in value to the souls of the redeemed. Such is the stern doom of justice: else man cannot be saved.
2. There must be a connection between those for whom the atonement is offered and the party who suffers.
3. He who was to die for man must be innocent. No halt or maimed victim could be accepted in the ancient sacrifices: it must be perfect. But how could man furnish a perfect sacrifice for sin?
4. The victim must be willing. An involuntary, forced sacrifice would be cruel tyranny.
II. How all the qualities requisite for a perfect atonement have met in Christ.
1. There was sufficiency in value, for Christ was the Son of God.
2. He had connection with these for whom He died; for He was man as well as God.
3. He was perfectly innocent--He did no sin.
4. He was a willing victim. (George Innes.)
Jesus the true Messiah
I. It is intimated that, whenever the Messiah should come, the sacrifices and ceremonies of the mosaic law were to be superseded by him. Jewish writers contend for the perpetuity of the ceremonial as well as of the moral law; but in this they are opposed, both by Scripture and by fact.
1. As to Scripture (1Sa_15:22; Psa_50:7-15; Psa_51:16-17; Isa_1:11-12; Jer_7:21-23; Dan_9:27; Jer_31:31-34; Heb_8:13; Heb_10:17-18).
2. Whether Messiah the Prince be come or not, sacrifice and oblation have ceased. We believed they virtually ceased when Jesus offered Himself a sacrifice, and in a few years after they actually ceased.
II. It is suggested that, whenever Messiah should come, the great body of scripture prophecy should be accomplished in him. In the volume, etc.
1. The time when Messiah should come is clearly marked out in prophecy (Gen_49:10; Hag_2:6-9; Dan_9:24-27).
2. The place where Messiah should be born, and where He should principally impart His doctrine, is determined (Mic_5:2; Isa_9:2).
3. The house or family from whom Messiah should descend is clearly ascertained.
4. The kind of miracles that Messiah should perform is specified (Isa_35:5-6).
5. It was predicted of Messiah that He should, as a King, be distinguished by His lowliness, entering into Jerusalem, not in a chariot of state, but in a much humbler style (Zec_9:9).
6. It is predicted of Messiah that He should suffer and die by the hands of wicked men (Isa_49:7; Isa_53:9; Dan_9:26).
7. It was foretold that the Messiah, after being cut off out of the land of the living and laid in the grave, should rise from the dead.
8. It was foretold that the great body of the Jewish nation would not believe in Him; and that He would set up His kingdom among the Gentiles (Isa_53:1; Isa_49:4-6).
III. It is declared, that when the Messiah should come, the will of God would be perfectly fulfilled by him. I delight to do Thy will. The will of God sometimes denotes what He approves, and sometimes what He appoints. The first is the rule of our conduct, the last of His own; and both we affirm to have been fulfilled by Jesus. (A. Fuller.)
Lo, I come
I. The sweeping away of the shadow.
1. When the Son of God is born into the world, there is an end of all types by which He was formerly prefigured. When the heart is gone out of the externals of worship, they are as shells without the kernel. Habitations without living tenants soon become desolations, and so do forms and ceremonies without their spiritual meaning. Toward the time of our Lords coming, the outward worship of Judaism became more and more dead: it was time that it was buried.
2. As these outward things vanish, they go away with Gods mark of non-esteem upon them: they are such things as He did not desire. The spiritual, the infinite, the almighty Jehovah could not desire merely outward ritual, however it might appear glorious to men. The sweetest music is not for His ear, nor the most splendid robes of priests for His eye. He desired something infinitely more precious than these, and He puts them away with this note of dissatisfaction.
3. They were so put away as never to be followed by the same kind of things. Shadows are not replaced by other shadows.
II. The revelation of thy Substance.
1. The Lord Himself comes, even He who is all that these things foreshadowed.
(1) When He comes He has a prepared ear. The margin hath it, Mine ears hast Thou digged. Our ears often need digging; for they are blocked up by sin. The passage to the heart seems to be sealed in the case of fallen man. But when the Saviour came, His ear was not as ours, but was attentive to the Divine voice.
(2) He came also with a prepared body (Heb_10:5).
2. He who assumed that body was existent before that body was prepared. He says, A body hast Thou prepared me. Lo, I come. He from old eternity dwelt with God: the Word was in the beginning with God, and the Word was God. He was before all worlds, and was before He came into the world to dwell in His prepared body.
3. The human nature of Christ was taken on Him in order that He might be able to do for us that which God desired and required. An absolutely perfect righteousness He renders unto God; as the second Adam, He presents it for all whom He represents.
III. The declaration of the Christ made in the text. Lo, I come.
1. Observe when He says this. It is in the time of failure.
2. When our Lord comes, it is with the view of filling up the vacuum which had now been sorrowfully seen. He gives to man in reality what he had lost in the shadow.
3. When He appears, it is as the personal Lord--the Infinite Ego. Everything is stored up in His blessed person, and we are complete in Him.
4. Observe the joyful avowal that He makes. This is no dirge; I think I hear a silver trumpet ring out, Lo, I come.
5. He comes with a word calling attention to it; for He is not ashamed to be made partaker of our flesh. Others have cried to you, Lo, here! and Lo, there; but Jesus looks on you, and cries, Lo, I come. Look hither; turn all your thoughts this way, and behold your God in your nature ready to save you.
6. I hear in this declaration of the coming One a note of finality. He is the fulfilment of all the requirements of the human race, as well as the full amount of what God requires.
IV. The reference to preceding writings. He says, to, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me. If I preached from the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, I might fairly declare that in the whole volume of Holy Scripture much is written of our Lord and prescribed for Him as Messiah. Preaching as I am from the Psalms, I cannot take so long a range. I must look back and find what was written in Davids day, and within the Pentateuch certainly; and whore do I find it written concerning His coming? The Pentateuch drips with prophecies of Christ as a honeycomb overflowing with its honey.
V. The delight of him that cometh.
1. He came in complete subserviency to His Father. Though high as the highest, tie stooped low as the lowest.
2. He had a prospective delight as to His work (Pro_8:31).
3. He had an actual delight in His coming among men. To Him it was joy to be in sorrow, and honour to be put to shame. Do you think that lightens our estimate of His self-denial and disinterestedness? Nay, it adds weight to it. Some people fancy that there is no credit in doing a thing unless you are miserable in doing it. Nay, that is the very reverse. Obedience which is unwillingly offered and causes no joy in the soul, is not acceptable. We must serve God with our heart, or we do not serve Him.
4. Need I tell you what must be the delight, the heavenly joy of our Lord, now that the work is finished? He is now the focus, the centre, the source of bliss. What must be His own delight! We often say of the angels that they rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. What means the presence of the angels? Why, that the angels see the joy of Christ when sinners repent. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Lo, I come
The times when our Lord says, Lo, I come, have all a family likeness. There are certain crystals which assume a regular shape, and if you break them, each fragment will show the same conformation; if you were to dash them to shivers, every particle of the crystal would be still of the same form. Now, the goings forth of Christ which were of old, and His craning at Calvary, and that great advent when He shall come a second time to judge the earth in righteousness, all these have a likeness the one to the other. But there is a coming of what I may call a lesser sort, when Jesus cries, Lo, I come to each individual sinner, and brings a revelation of pardon and salvation; and this has about it much which is similar to the great ones.
I. The Lord Christ has times of his first comings to men; Then said I, Lo, I come. What are these times? Mayhap some here have reached this season, and this very day is the time of blessing when the text shall be fulfilled: Then said I, Lo, I come. Go with me to the first record in the volume of the Book, when it was said that He should come. You will find it in the early chapter of Genesis.
1. Jesus said, Lo, I come, when mans probation was a failure. Adam being in honour continued not. At that point we read in the volume of the Book that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head. Then our Redeemer said, Lo, I come. Hearken to me; you also have had your probation, as you have thought it to be.
2. When mans clever dealings with the devil had turned out a great failure.
3. When mans covering was a failure.
4. When all mans pleas were failures.
5. When mans religion had proved a failure.
II. Christ comes to sinners in the glory of his person. Lo, I come. What does He mean?
1. He means the setting of all else on one side.
2. Before Him there is a setting of self aside. Lo, he comes to clothe you from head to foot with His own seamless robe of righteousness. He annihilates self that He may fill all things.
3. Here is a glorious setting of Himself at our side and in our place. Jesus is now the one pillar on which to lean, the one foundation on which to build, the one and only rest of our weary souls.
4. He sets Himself where we can see Him; for he cries, Lo, I come; that is to say, See Me come. He comes openly, that we may see Him clearly.
5. Our Lord sets Himself to be permanently our all in all. When He came on earth, He did not leave His work till He had finished it. Even when He rose to glory, He continued His service for His chosen, living to intercede for them. Jesus will be a Saviour until all the chosen race shall have been gathered home.
III. Christ, in his coming, is his own introduction.
1. Here our Lord is His own herald. Lo, I come. He bids you look on Him when you beseech Him to look on you.
2. He comes when quite unsought or sought for in a wrong way. Lo, I come, is the announcement of majestic grace which waiteth not for man, neither tarrieth for the sons of men.
3. Our Lord Jesus is the way to Himself.
4. He is the blessing which He brings.
5. He is His own spokesman.
IV. Christ, to cheer us reveals his reasons for coming.
1. It is His Fathers will.
2. His own heart is set on you.
3. You have need, and He has love, and so He comes.
V. Christs coming is the best plea for our receiving him, and receiving him now. Receive Him! If you are in yourself sadly unready, yet He Himself will make everything ready for Himself. Shut not out your own mercy. A pastor in Edinburgh, in going round his district, knocked at the door of a poor woman, for whom he had brought some needed help; but he received no answer. When next he met her, he said to her, I called on Tuesday at your house. She asked, At what time? . . . About eleven oclock; I knocked, and you did not answer. I was disappointed, for I called to give you help. Ah, sir! said she, I am very sorry. I thought it was the man coming for the rent, and I could not pay it, and therefore I did not dare to go to the door. Many a troubled soul thinks that Jesus is one who comes to ask of us what we cannot give; but indeed He comes to give us all things. His errand is not to condemn, but to forgive. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Delight to do the will of God
I. Some cases in which the christian delights to do the will of God.
1. In the acts and offices of religious worship.
2. In the faithful discharge of those duties which he owes to his fellow-creatures.
3. In the good government of himself, and the practice of temperance and self-denial.
II. Some of the chief fruits or effects of it.
1. Cheerfulness, an habitual vivacity and gladness of heart in the exercise of our moral and religious duties, both in the time of our wealth and in the time of suffering and tribulation.
2. A firm confidence in Gods protection and goodness, a cheerful apprehension of His perpetual presence and overruling providence, and a deep-rooted persuasion of His merciful disposition towards us, and of the truth and excellence of His promises.
3. A humble but stedfast hope of everlasting happiness, grounded on His promises in Christ, and brought home to the mind of the believer in the way of just inference and reasonable collection. (Bishop Bethell.)
Christs delight in the work of redemption
I. Why it ought to be a pleasant and grateful thing to Christ to take a body of flesh and lay it down by death again for the redemption of sinners.
1. It became Christ to go about this work with cheerfulness and delight, that thereby He might give His death the nature and formality of a sacrifice.
2. It ought to be so in regard of the unity of Christs will with the Fathers. The work of our redemption is called the pleasure of the Lord (Isa_53:10), and what was the Fathers pleasure could not be displeasing to Him who is one with the Father.
3. This was necessary to magnify and commend the love of Jesus Christ to us, for whom He gave Himself. That He came into the world to die for us is a mercy of the first magnitude, but that He came in love to our souls, and underwent all His sufferings with such willingness for our sakes, this heightens it above all apprehension.
4. It was necessary to be so for the regulating of all our obedience to God according to this pattern, that seeing and setting this great example of obedience before us, we might never grudge nor grumble at any duty or suffering that God should call us to.
II. Whence it came to re so pleasant and acceptable to Jesus Christ to come into the world and die for poor sinners.
1. That in His sufferings there would be made a glorious display and manifestation of the Divine attributes; yea, such a glorious display of them as was never made before to angels or to men, nor ever shall be any more in this world.
(1) For though the wisdom of God had made itself visible to men in the creation of the world, yet there it shone, but in a faint and languishing beam compared with this.
(2) The love of God had appeared before in our creation, protection and provision, yet nothing to what it doth in our redemption by the death of Christ.
(3) God had given several sad marks of His justice before, both upon the angels that fell, and in the overthrow of Sodom, etc.; yet never was the exactness and severity of justice so manifested before, nor ever shall be any more, as it was at the death of Christ.
2. Another delightful prospect Christ had of the fruit of His sufferings was the recovery and salvation of all the elect by His death; and though His sufferings were exceeding bitter, yet such fruit of them as this was exceeding sweet; upon this account He assumed his name Jesus (Mat_1:21), yea, and His human nature also (Gal_4:4-5).
3. The glory which would redound to Him from His redeemed ones to all eternity; for it will be the everlasting pleasant employment of the saints in heaven to be ascribing glory, praise and honour to the Redeemer. (John Flavel.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v7 the scroll of the document
the scroll of the document
This refers to a scroll on which was written the word of Yahweh. AT: "the written scroll" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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your laws are in my heart
Here "my heart" refers to the inner being of the writer. AT: "I am always thinking about your laws within my inner being" (See: Metonymy)
I have proclaimed good news of your righteousness in the great assembly
"I have told a large assembly of people the good news of your righteousness."
good news of your righteousness
This refers to the good news that God rescues his people. AT: "good news that because you are righteous, you rescue your people" (See: Ellipsis)
my lips have not kept back from doing this
Here "my lips" represents the writer, emphasizing his speech. AT: "I have not stopped myself from proclaiming these things" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
written
scroll
will of God
law
preach
good news
righteous
assembly
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv6–7 40:6 The Lord delights in the attitude and character…
40:6 The Lord delights in the attitude and character of the person making an offering more than in the offering itself. • Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand: Greek text reads You have given me a body. In Heb 10:5-7, the writer quotes from the Greek version of Ps 40:6-8. He casts the words as something Jesus said as he left heaven and came into the world.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.