Chapter Overview
Summary
Psalm 40 (MT) / Psalm 39 (LXX) combines thanksgiving (vv. 1–10) with renewed petition (vv. 11–17). The middle section (vv. 6–8) is quoted at Hebrews 10:5–7 as the voice of the incarnate Christ on entering the world — the locus classicus for the incarnation's replacement of the Levitical sacrificial system. The LXX's 'but a body you have prepared for me' (v. 6b) differs dramatically from the MT's 'ears you have opened for me'; the LXX reading becomes the theological foundation for Christ's embodied obedience as the new-covenant sacrifice. The closing verses (vv. 13–17) parallel Psalm 70 almost verbatim.
Notable Variants
40:6–8 → Hebrews 10:5–7 — the single most consequential LXX-vs-MT divergence in the NT ('body prepared for me' vs 'ears opened for me') supplying the incarnation's scriptural warrant; 40:3 'new song' motif; 40:13–17 // Psalm 70 near-doublet.
Structural Notes
MT Ps 40 = LXX Ps 39. 18 verses (MT/LXX), 17 verses (English).
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
Superscription tracks MT.
I waited — waited intently — for the LORD, and He leaned down to me and heard my cry.
'I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry' tracks MT. The patient-waiting formula — hypomenōn hypemeina — is the emphatic double-form (waiting-I-waited) that renders the Hebrew infinitive-absolute. The patient-endurance theme that Hebrews 10:36 and 12:1–2 weave into Christian-perseverance ethics.
He lifted me out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry mud. He set my feet on a rock and made my steps secure.
'He drew me up from the pit of destruction' tracks MT. 'Miry bog' as captive-imagery — parallels Ps 69:2 and anticipates Jeremiah 38:6 (Jeremiah in the cistern).
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
'He put a new song in my mouth' tracks MT. The 'new song' (shir chadash / asma kainon) — the Revelation 5:9, 14:3's 'new song' anticipates.
Blessed is the person who makes the LORD his trust and does not turn to the arrogant or to those who chase after lies.
'Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust' tracks MT.
Many are the wonders you have done, O LORD my God, and your plans for us — nothing can compare to you. If I tried to declare and tell of them, they would be too many to count.
'Wonders and thoughts toward us' tracks MT. The divine-plans-for-us theology anticipates Jeremiah 29:11 ('plans for welfare and not for evil').
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire — ears you dug for me. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require.
Masoretic (WLC)
זֶבַח וּמִנְחָה לֹא־חָפַצְתָּ אָזְנַיִם כָּרִיתָ לִּי עוֹלָה וַחֲטָאָה לֹא שָׁאָלְתָּ
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire; ears you have opened for me; burnt offering and sin offering you have not required
Septuagint (LXX)
θυσίαν καὶ προσφορὰν οὐκ ἠθέλησας σῶμα δὲ κατηρτίσω μοι ὁλοκαύτωμα καὶ περὶ ἁμαρτίας οὐκ ᾔτησας
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me; whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you did not require
HEBREWS 10:5 CITATION — THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL LXX-vs-MT DIVERGENCE IN THE NT. Hebrews 10:5 cites this verse verbatim from the LXX: when Christ came into the world, he said — Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME (sōma de katērtisō moi). The LXX's sōma ('body') translates — or reinterprets — the MT's oznayim ('ears').
THE TRANSLATIONAL PUZZLE. Three proposals for how MT's 'ears' became LXX's 'body': (1) synecdoche — 'ears' representing the whole instrument-of-obedience (the body), an interpretive paraphrase by the Greek translator; (2) a different Hebrew Vorlage no longer extant; (3) inner-Greek scribal corruption from an earlier Greek rendering. The earliest surviving LXX manuscripts (Codex Alexandrinus, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus) all preserve sōma, indicating the reading predates Hebrews.
HEBREWS' THEOLOGICAL APPROPRIATION. The epistle reads the LXX's 'body prepared for me' as the INCARNATION — God prepared a human body for the Son that the Son might offer it in obedient self-giving. The 'body' is thus (a) the vehicle of obedience (what MT's 'ears' suggest), (b) the offered sacrifice (what Heb 10:10 explicitly says: 'we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ'), and (c) the end of Levitical animal-sacrifice (the Son's incarnate body replaces all cultic sacrifices). The New Testament thus reads the LXX as the divinely-providential form of the Davidic-text preparing for Christ.
The verse teaches that even within Davidic-piety, God prioritizes obedient-body over ritual-sacrifice — a theology 1 Samuel 15:22 ('to obey is better than sacrifice'), Psalm 51:16–17 ('you do not delight in sacrifice … a broken and contrite heart'), Hosea 6:6 ('I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice'), and Micah 6:6–8 ('what does the LORD require') all share.
Then I said, 'See — I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written about me.
Masoretic (WLC)
אָז אָמַרְתִּי הִנֵּה־בָאתִי בִּמְגִלַּת־סֵפֶר כָּתוּב עָלָי
Then I said: Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me
Septuagint (LXX)
τότε εἶπον ἰδοὺ ἥκω ἐν κεφαλίδι βιβλίου γέγραπται περὶ ἐμοῦ
Then I said: Behold, I have come; in the head of the book it is written of me
HEBREWS 10:7 CITATION. Hebrews 10:7 cites this verse: 'then I said: Behold, I have come — in the volume of the book it is written of me — to do your will, O God.' The 'here I come' (idou hēkō) becomes the Christological announcement-formula of the incarnation. Jesus' mission-statement ('I have come to do your will') is fulfillment of this psalmic vow.
'IN THE HEAD OF THE BOOK' (en kephalidi bibliou). The 'head of the book' — kephalis being the knob/head at the top of a scroll-roll where the colophon is written — the Davidic-psalmist claims prophetic-writing about himself at the book's inscribed-beginning. Christologically read, the whole of Scripture (Law, Prophets, Writings) is the 'book' in which Christ's coming-to-do-God's-will is inscribed (Luke 24:27, 44, John 5:39).
I delight to do your will, O my God. Your instruction is within my inmost being.'
Masoretic (WLC)
לַעֲשׂוֹת־רְצוֹנְךָ אֱלֹהַי חָפָצְתִּי וְתוֹרָתְךָ בְּתוֹךְ מֵעָי
I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart
Septuagint (LXX)
τοῦ ποιῆσαι τὸ θέλημά σου ὁ θεός μου ἐβουλήθην καὶ τὸν νόμον σου ἐν μέσῳ τῆς κοιλίας μου
I desired to do your will, O my God; and your law is in the midst of my belly
HEBREWS 10:7 CITATION (CONTINUATION). 'To do your will, O God' (tou poiēsai … to thelēma sou) is cited at Heb 10:7 and 10:9 as the Son's incarnational-mission-statement. The second half ('your law in the midst of my belly') — Torah internalized in the inmost being — anticipates Jeremiah 31:33's new-covenant promise ('I will write my law on their hearts') and the embodied-obedience theology.
The INCARNATE SON comes not merely to offer sacrifices but to EMBODY the Torah-of-the-Father. His body is the site of Torah-fulfillment; his obedient-life and death the sacrifice God desired all along.
I proclaimed good news of righteousness in the great assembly. See — I did not seal my lips. O LORD, you know this.
'I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation' tracks MT. The public-proclamation-of-righteousness — evangelizomai (euēngelisamēn) in the LXX — carries the noun 'gospel' (euangelion) seed-vocabulary.
I did not hide your righteousness within my heart. I spoke of your faithfulness and your salvation. I did not conceal your faithful love and your truth from the great assembly.
'I have not hidden your steadfast love and your faithfulness' tracks MT.
You, O LORD, will not withhold your compassion from me. Your faithful love and your truth will always guard me.
'As for you, O LORD, do not withhold your mercy' tracks MT.
For evils beyond number have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me — I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed me.
'For evils have encompassed me beyond number' tracks MT. 'My iniquities have overtaken me … more than the hairs of my head' — divine-ethical-honesty in the midst of thanksgiving-turned-petition.
Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me. O LORD, hurry to help me.
'Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me!' tracks MT. The petition-half begins. Verses 14–18 are virtually identical to Psalm 70 — the same content standing both embedded in Ps 40 and as a freestanding psalm.
Let those who seek to destroy my life be shamed and disgraced together. Let those who delight in my ruin be turned back and humiliated.
'Let those be put to shame and disappointed' tracks MT. // Ps 70:3.
Let those who say to me, 'Ha! Ha!' be appalled at their own shame.
'Let those who say: Aha, Aha! be appalled' tracks MT. // Ps 70:4. The 'aha' (euge, euge) mocking-formula that reappears at Jesus' crucifixion (Matt 27:39–40).
Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say continually, 'The LORD is great!'
'May all who seek you rejoice and be glad' tracks MT. // Ps 70:5.
As for me — I am poor and needy, but the Lord thinks of me. You are my help and my deliverer. O my God, do not delay.
'As for me, I am poor and needy' tracks MT. // Ps 70:6. The self-designation 'poor and needy' (anī ve-evyon / ptōchos kai penēs) is the standard anawim-identity formula — a LXX-Psalms signature category.