Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 40:6

6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire , mine ears hast thou opened : burnt offering and sin-offering hast thou not required.

These and the following Words, may in an improper Sence 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. 1 Cor. 1. 17. and in this very Case of Sacrifices, as Psal. 51. 16. Ier. 7. 22, 23. H[illegible: 1+ letters]se. 6. 6. So the Sence is; thou didst desire Obedience more, or rather than Sacrifices, as was said 1 Sam. 15. 22. But in a Proper and Literal and full Sence, they belong onely to the Person and times of the Messias, in whose Name David uttereth these Words. And so the Sence of the place 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, as is said Heb. 10. 4, 5, 6. But onely by the Blood of Christ, which was Typified by them, and which Christ came into the World, to shed in pursuance of his Fathers Will, as it here follows, v. 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.

Heb. bored. The Sence is, Either, 1. Whereas many men have no Ears to hear, as is implyed, Revel. 2. 7, 11, 17. or stop their Ears, as Psal. 58. 4. Zech. 7. 11. thou hast given me open Ears to hear and obey thy Precepts, as this Phrase is used, Isa. 50. 5. although indeed there is another Verb in that Text; which much alters the Case. Or, 2. I have wholly devoted my self 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. 21. 5, 6. Deut. 15. 17. And whereas onely one Ear was then bored, and here it is Ears, this may be either an Enallage 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 onely 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 LXX Jewish Interpreters, whom the Apostle follows, Heb. 10. [illegible: 1+ letters]. Translate these Words; A Body hast thou prepared me: Wherein though the Words differ the Sence 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.

Marginal references: Psal. 50. 8. & 51. 16. Isa. 1. 11. & 66 3. Hos. 6. 6. Mat. 12. 7. Heb. 10. 5.; Isa. 50. 5.; Hbb. digged.