Psalm 40:6

A Body Hast Thou Prepared Me

Quoted by the apostles in Hebrews 10:5, in the older Greek wording

Side by Side

The Older Text

Septuagint, translated before Messiah

Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not; but a body hast thou prepared me: whole-burnt-offering and sacrifice for sin thou didst not require.

The Later Text

Masoretic, finished about 1,000 years after the cross

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

Quoted in Hebrews 10:5

The apostle’s Old Testament

Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

Your KJV reads: “ears” in the Psalm, following the later Hebrew, and “a body” in Hebrews, following the Greek.

See what changed and why ↓

What Your Bible Says

Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.
Hebrews 10:5 KJV

Hebrews puts these words in the mouth of Messiah. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. So the Father prepared a body, and that body was offered. A few verses later the apostle says it plainly:

By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Yahushua Messiah once for all.
Hebrews 10:10 KJV

What the Jewish Bible Says

Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
Psalm 40:6 KJV

Turn back to the psalm and there is no body. The Hebrew as it stands today speaks of ears, literally ears that were dug out. The verse becomes a lesson about listening. The one who comes with a body to offer has disappeared.

What Changed

One phrase. The older text says a body was prepared. The later text says ears were opened.

That phrase carries the whole argument of Hebrews 10. The apostle reasons from “a body hast thou prepared me” straight to “the offering of the body of Yahushua Messiah once for all.” Take the body out of the psalm, and the apostle seems to have built his case on a line David never wrote.

Which One Is Right?

The Greek Bible, translated before Messiah, reads “a body” in its great old copies.

Hebrews 10:5 quotes that wording exactly and builds its teaching on it. Hebrews is older than any surviving Greek copy of this psalm.

The Masoretic text reads “ears,” and so does every Hebrew copy known.

Purpose of the Change

The effect is that the prepared body vanishes from the psalm. Hebrews 10 is left quoting words the Jewish Bible does not contain, and the offering of Messiah’s body loses its witness in the Psalms.

The Bottom Line

The apostle read “a body” in his Bible. The Father prepared it, and it was offered once for all.

The body that was prepared and offered is remembered at the very start of the last Book: “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Revelation 1:5).

Dig Deeper The evidence, for anyone who wants it

Ears or a Body?

The Hebrew reads, word for word, “ears thou hast dug for me.” The Greek reads “a body thou hast prepared for me.” Some think the Greek translators gave the sense rather than the words: a servant whose ears are opened to obey must have a body to obey in. Others think the change happened in copying, since the Greek words for “ears” and “body” could be confused when written in capital letters with no spaces. Either way, the apostle read “body” as Scripture.

The Servant’s Ear

Even the Hebrew wording points to Messiah. Under the Law, a servant who chose to stay with his master had his ear marked:

And his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
Exodus 21:6 KJV

The opened ear is the mark of a willing servant. The prepared body is the place where that willing service was carried out to the end.

Who Prepared the Body?

“Thou hast prepared me.” The Father prepares; the Son receives. The next verse says why He came: “Lo, I come … to do thy will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7). The Son does the will of His God. That is a Son under His Father, not a second Yahuah beside Him.

An Honest Note

No Hebrew copy reads “body,” so this may not be a change made by the Hebrew scribes at all. The difference may come from the Greek translators or their copyists. The great old Greek Bibles read “body,” but some early Latin copies read “ears,” and the standard modern Greek editions print “ears,” judging “body” to be an early slip. What settles it for the believer is that Hebrews, written before any of those copies, quotes “body” as the word of Scripture.