Not according to the covenant. — The difference is declared below (Hebrews 8:10-12). “In the day when” they were led forth out of Egypt the token of God’s covenant was the deliverance itself. At Sinai, Exodus 24:7-8 (see Hebrews 9:18-22), the “book of the covenant” was read, and “the blood of the covenant” was “sprinkled on the people,” who had promised obedience to all the words that the Lord had said.
And I regarded them not. — It is here that the translation departs from the Hebrew, which, as is now generally believed, is faithfully represented in our Authorised version: “although I was an husband unto them” (that is, had the authority of a husband). The quotation here follows the LXX. without change.