John Gill Commentary Hebrews 8:9

"Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers In the day that I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt; For they continued not in my covenant, And I regarded them not, saith the Lord." — Hebrews 8:9 (ASV)

Not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers
The ancestors of the Jews at Mount Sinai:

in the day when I took them, by the hand to lead them out of the
land of Egypt ;
which is mentioned, not only to observe the time when the former covenant was made with the Israelites, which was just upon their deliverance out of Egypt; but also to show their weakness and inability to have delivered themselves, and the tenderness of God toward them; they were like children, they could not help themselves when God took them by the hand, and brought them forth with an outstretched arm; and likewise to expose their ingratitude, and vindicate his conduct toward them:

because they continued not in my covenant ;
though they promised, at the reading of it, that all that the Lord had said, they would hear and do; but their hearts were not right with God, and they were not steadfast in his covenant, and therefore their carcasses fell in the wilderness:

and I regarded them not, says the Lord ;
the words in (Jeremiah 31:32) are very differently rendered in our translation, "although I was an husband to them": and so it becomes an aggravation of their sin of ingratitude, in not continuing in his covenant: in the margin it is rendered interrogatively, "should I have continued an husband to them?" that is, after they had so treated him, no; as if he should say, I will not behave toward them as such; I will reject them, and disregard them. The Chaldee paraphrase is just the reverse of the apostle's translation, "and I was well pleased with them": some render them, "I ruled over them", as a lord over his servants, in a very severe manner. Others, observing the great difference there is between the Hebrew text, and the apostle's version, have supposed a different Hebrew copy from the present, used by the Septuagint, or the apostle, in which, instead of (ytleb) , it was read either (ytlxb) , or (ytleg) ;

but there is no need of such a supposition, since Dr. Pocock ^F7 has shown, that (leb) , in the Arabic language, signifies to loath and abhor, and so to disregard; and Kimchi ^F8 relates it as a rule laid down by his father, that wherever this word is used in construction with (b) , it is to be taken in an ill part, and signifies the same as (ytlxb) , "I have loathed"; in which sense that word is used in (Zechariah 11:8) and so here, I have loathed them, I abhorred them, I rejected them, I took no care of them, disregarded them, left their house desolate, and suffered wrath to come upon them to the uttermost.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F7: Not. Miscell. in Port. Mesis, p. 9.
• F8: In Jer. xxxi. 32. & Sepher Shorashim, rad. (leb)