Hebrews 10:5

when he cometh into the world, he saith The quotation is from Psalms 40:6-8. The words of the Psalmist are ideally and typologically transferred to the Son, in accordance with the universal conception of the O.T. Messianism which was prevalent among the Jews. It made no difference to their point of view that someparts of the Psalm (e.g. in Hebrews 10:12) could only have a primary and contemporary significance. The "coming into the world" is here regarded as having been long predetermined in the divine counsels; it is regarded, as Delitzsch says, "not as a point but as a line."

Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not "Thou carest not for slain beast or bloodless oblation." This is in accordance with the many magnificent declarations which in the midst of legal externalism declared its nullity except as a meansto better things (Isaiah 1:11; Jeremiah 6:20; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21; 1 Samuel 15:22, &c.

but a body hast thou prepared me This is the rendering of the LXX. In the Hebrew it is "But ears hast thou diggedfor me." The textof the Hebrew does not admit of easy alteration, so that either (1) the reading of the Greek text in the LXX. must be a clerical error, e.g. ΚΑΤΗΡΤΙΣΑΣΩΜΑ for ΚΑΤΗΡΤΙΣΑΣΩΤΙΑ, or (2) the LXX. rendering must be a sort of Targum or explanation. They regarded "a body didst Thou prepare" as equivalent to "Ears didst thou dig." The explanation is usually found in the Hebrew custom of boring a slave's ear if he preferred to remain in servitude (Exodus 21:6; Deuteronomy 15:17), so that the "bored ear" was a symbol of willing obedience. But the Hebrew verb means "to dig" rather than "to bore," and the true explanation seems to be "thou hast caused me to hear and obey." So in Isaiah 48:8 we have "thine ear was not opened," and in Isaiah 50:5, "God hath opened my earand I was not rebellious." Thus in the two first clauses of each parallelism in the four lines we have the sacrifices which God does notdesire; and in the second clause the obedience for which He does care. "The prepared body" is "the form of a servant," which Christ took upon Him in order to "open His ears" to the voice of God (Philippians 2:7). See Revelation 18:13, where "bodies" means "slaves." St Paul says, "Ye are become dead to the law by the bodyof Christ" (Romans 7:4).