Hebrews 8:13 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

In that he saith, A new covenant In that he expresses himself in this manner; he hath made the first old He hath manifested it to be old, or he hath shown that it is disannulled and out of date. Now that which decayeth, &c. That which is antiquated, and of no further use; is ready to vanish away As the Mosaic dispensation did soon after, when the temple was destroyed. “The Sinai covenant, before it was abrogated by Christ, was become old, or useless, in three respects; 1st, By its curse condemning every transgressor to death without mercy, it was designed to show the necessity of seeking justification from the mercy of God. But that necessity being more directly declared in the gospel, there was no reason for continuing the former covenant, after the second covenant was fully and universally published. 2d, The covenant of the law was introduced to prefigure the good things to come under the covenant of the gospel. But when these good things were actually bestowed, there was no longer any use for the typical services of the law. 3d, The Jewish doctors, by teaching that pardon was to be obtained only by the Levitical sacrifices, and the Judaizing Christians, by affirming that under the gospel itself men are pardoned only through the efficacy of these sacrifices, both the one and the other had corrupted the law; on which account, it was fit to lay it aside as a thing whose tendency now was to nourish superstition.” Macknight.