Psalm 40:6 — ears you have dug, or a body you have prepared?
Hebrews 10:5 uses σῶμα κατηρτίσω μοι, while Psalm 40:6 has אזנים כרית לי. The Greek and Hebrew present different images within the same sacrifice-and-offering setting.
What the APB prints.
Every witness, on the record.
What a blind committee did here.
The APB's translation committee works blind: it is never told it is translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and it never sees the witnesses above. Whatever it did at this verse, it did on the language alone — and its record is public.
No rationale note matches this crux. The blind committee's record gives the pericope audit verdict as "clean." In the APB text, the crux verse says that sacrifice and offering were not desired and that the speaker's ears were opened; it also says burnt offering and sin offering were not required.
The case for each reading.
If the Greek's “body”
Reading A is directly represented by the Septuagint, a translation dated c. 2nd century B.C. Its text reads σῶμα δὲ κατηρτίσω μοι, giving the image of a body prepared for the speaker. The witness row specifically identifies this as the wording Hebrews 10:5 places on the Messiah's lips. That connection makes the Greek form consequential for readers tracing the wording used there: the sacrificial context is retained, but the image is bodily preparation rather than an ear being opened. The packet describes this form as a smooth paraphrase, and the New Testament quotation follows that Greek wording.
If the Hebrew's “ears”
Reading B is represented by the Masoretic Text in the Westminster Leningrad Codex, dated A.D. 1008 and described as preserving a tradition centuries older. Its wording is אזנים כרית לי. In the supplied Hebrew verse, that phrase stands between the statement that sacrifice and offering were not desired and the statement that burnt offering and sin offering were not required. The witness note locates it at Ps 40:7 in Hebrew numbering and describes the image as obedience pictured through an opened ear. The APB likewise renders the crux verse with opened ears, preserving that immediate image rather than substituting a prepared body.
The supplied material does not explain how the Hebrew and Greek forms came to differ or determine their relationship. The immediate change is between a prepared body and opened-ear obedience in a sacrifice-and-offering context. The packet supplies no wider doctrinal claim that depends on selecting either wording.
Asked plainly.
Why does Hebrews 10:5 say a body was prepared?
The Septuagint reads σῶμα δὲ κατηρτίσω μοι, and the packet identifies that Greek wording as the form Hebrews 10:5 places on the Messiah's lips.
What does the Hebrew text say at Psalm 40:6?
The Masoretic Text reads אזנים כרית לי. Its witness note describes the phrase, at Ps 40:7 in Hebrew numbering, as obedience pictured through an opened ear.
What did the APB print at the crux verse?
The APB says that sacrifice and offering were not desired, that the speaker's ears were opened, and that burnt offering and sin offering were not required.
More places where the manuscripts argue.
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited as published scholarly fact with their sources linked above. Nothing on this page declares a winner — the evidence is the point.
Weigh it yourself.
The registry doesn't tell you which reading is true. It puts every witness on one page, shows what a blind committee did with the same language, and leaves the verdict where it belongs — with the reader.