In Heb. 10:5 we have a quotation from the Septuagint where it differs widely from the Hebrew of Psa. 40:7.  This reads:  “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened” (Heb. bored or digged).  But the apostle quotes after the Septuagint:  “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared for me.”  The attempted explanations of this difference are not very satisfactory.  It is to be noticed, however, that the apostle builds no essential part of his argument upon the clause in question.

In the long quotation from Jeremiah in Heb. 8:8-12, the clause, “and I regarded them not” (ver. 9), is perhaps correct for substance; since many prefer to render the corresponding Hebrew clause not as in our version—­“though I was a husband unto them,”—­but, “and I rejected them.”

When, on the contrary, the spirit and scope of a passage are lost in the version of the Seventy, the New Testament writers quote directly from the Hebrew.  Examples are the following: 

“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.”  Hosea 11:1, quoted in Matt. 2:15.  Here the Seventy render:  “Out of Egypt I called my children,” a variation from the original which makes the passage inapplicable; since Israel, as God’s first-born son (Exod. 4:22, 23), was the type of Christ, and not the individual Israelites.

Again, to the passage Isa. 42:1-4, quoted in Matt. 12:18-21, the Septuagint gives a wrong turn by the introductory words:  “Jacob my son, I will help him:  Israel my chosen, my soul hath accepted him:  I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles,” etc.; whereas the Hebrew speaks not of Jacob and Israel, but of God’s servant:  “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delighteth,” etc.  Matthew accordingly follows the Hebrew, yet in a very free manner:  “Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul delighteth,” etc.

For other examples see Mal. 3:1, as quoted by Matt. 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27; Isa. 9:1, 2, as quoted by Matt. 4:15, 16.

3.  Passing now to the consideration of the New Testament citations on the side of their inward contents, the first question, that arises has respect to the so-called principle of accommodation.  There is a sense in which the writers of the New Testament sometimes employ the language of the Old in the way of accommodation; that is, they use its phraseology, originally applied in a different connection, simply as expressing in an apt and forcible manner the thoughts which they wish to convey.  Of this we have a beautiful example in Rom. 10:18, where the apostle says, in reference to the proclamation of the gospel:  “But I say, Have they not heard?  Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world,” meaning that what the psalmist says of the instruction given by the heavens,