Hebrews 8:8,9 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For In this verse the apostle enters upon the proof of his argument proposed in that foregoing, namely, that the first covenant was not faultless, or every way sufficient for the end God had in view, because there was cause for the introduction of another. For finding fault with them Namely, the people; he saith, Behold the days come, &c. This is translated by Grotius and others, Finding fault, he saith to them, and understood of finding fault with the former covenant. But it seems much more proper to understand it of God's finding fault with the Jews, (as he evidently does in the words preceding those here quoted, Jeremiah 31:29-30,) for using the proverb, against which he expresses so much displeasure, in Ezekiel 18:2. And in the words themselves he also finds fault with them for breaking this covenant, though he had, with so much tender care, brought them out of Egypt. It is true, the first covenant was not every way perfect with respect to God's general end toward his church; yet it may not be proper to say that God complained of it; whereas God, in this testimony, actually complains of the people that they brake his covenant, and expresses his indignation thereon, saying, I regarded them not. He saith By the Prophet Jeremiah, in that celebrated text, which undoubtedly refers to the gospel dispensation; Behold As if he had said, Because the covenant, which they were under before, was not the means of reforming them, but, notwithstanding it, they were rebellious still; therefore the days come Namely, of the gospel; when I will make a new covenant Not new in regard of the substance of it, but the manner of its dispensation; 1st, Being ratified by the death of Christ; 2d, Freed from the burdensome rites and ceremonies of the law; 3d, Containing a more full and clear revelation of the mysteries of religion, and a more perfect description of it as spiritual, and having its seat chiefly in men's hearts; 4th, Attended with larger influences of the Spirit; 5th, Extended to all men; 6th, Never to be abolished. With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah That is, with the whole Jewish nation, including descendants from both these houses. For although the houses of Israel and Judah had existed separately, the one from the other, from the time of the first Jeroboam, yet after the captivity of the ten tribes, who composed the house of Israel, such of them as joined themselves to the house of Judah, were so mixed with them as not to be distinguished from them. Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers But differing from it in the circumstances above mentioned, and in others declared afterward; when I took them by the hand With the care and tenderness of a parent; or manifested my infinite condescension and almighty power in their deliverance; because they continued not Or, in which covenant of mine they did not continue; while their deliverance was fresh in their memory they obeyed, but presently after they shook off the yoke, and did not abide by the terms of the covenant. And I regarded them not Greek, καγω ημελησα αυτων, I neglected them. So that the covenant was soon entirely broken. The passage here quoted stands thus in Jeremiah, Which my covenant they brake, though I was a husband to them, saith the Lord. The apostle's translation of it is that of the LXX. And to reconcile it with the Hebrew text, Pocock (in his Miscel., chap. 1) observes, that in the eastern languages, letters of the same organ, as they are called, being often interchanged, the Hebrew word, בעל, bagnal, to be a husband, is the same with the Arabic word, בהל, bahal, which signifies to refuse, despise, nauseate. So that the Hebrew clause will bear to be translated as the apostle and the LXX. have done, I neglected them, I nauseated them. See note on Jeremiah 31:31, &c.