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These words may in an improper sense 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 1Co_1:17, and in this very case of sacrifices, as Psa_51:16 Jer_7:22,23 Ho 6:6. So the sense is, Thou didst desire obedience more or rather than sacrifices, as was said, 1Sa_15:22. But in a proper and literal and full sense they belong only to the person and times of the Messias, in whose name David uttereth these words. And so the sense of the place is, God did not desire or require them for the satisfaction of his own justice, and the expiation of men’s sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, as is said, Heb_10:4-6; but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his Father’s will, as it here follows, Psa_40:7,8. So here is a prediction concerning the cessation and abolition of the legal sacrifices, and the substitution of a better instead of them.
Mine ears hast thou opened, Heb. bored. The sense is either,
1. Whereas many men have no ears to hear, as is implied, Rev_2:7,11,17, or stop their ears, as Psa_58:4 Zec_7:11, thou hast given me open ears to hear and obey thy precepts, as this phrase is used, Isa_1:5, although indeed there is another verb in that text, which much alters the case. Or,
2. I have wholly devoted myself 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, Exo_21:5,6 Deu 15:17. And whereas only one ear was then bored, and here it is ears, this may be either an ensilage 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 only 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 seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb_10:5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me; wherein though the words differ, the sense 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.