V. 9.— Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; became they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. Here we have a characteristic of the new and better covenant. It is first described negatively. It was not to be according to the covenant that God made with their fathers, [Although the believing Gentiles were not descended from Israel after the flesh, yet they are here spoken of as their children. We And the Apostle using the same language, 1 Corinthians 10:1. when He took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. [The redemption of Israel was temporal, from the bondage of Egypt, as were all their temptations in the wilderness.]Before forty days had elapsed since they trembled under the voice of God, they broke the covenant by bowing to the golden calf; and their whole history was a continued course of rebellion. Hence the judgments executed on them, and their present state of dispersion among all nations. They refused to hearken to their covenant God, who had distinguished them above all other nations; and therefore they largely experienced the curses denounced against disobedience, until they were cast out of their inheritance.