It will not be like the covenant …: as verse 10 shows (I will be their God, and they will be my people, see Lev 26.12), the new covenant has something in common with the old (see comment on 7.22). The difference is that the new covenant will be based on inward obedience to a different kind of law (7.12). Verse 10 will make this clear. Hebrews uses the ordinary Greek word for made, which is different from the more technical term used in the Septuagint. Good News Translation preserves this distinction by using draw up in verse 8.
It may be necessary to repeat “The new covenant” rather than employ a pronoun such as It. Therefore the first part of verse 9 may be rendered as “The new covenant will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors.”
I took them by the hand is an idiom meaning “to guide carefully” or “to lead with care.” Therefore I took them by the hand may be rendered as “I carefully guided them.”
In rendering led them out, it is essential to use an expression which is applicable to people and not merely to animals.
“The land of” (Revised Standard Version) before Egypt is omitted in Good News Translation, Bijbel in Gewone Taal, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, though it is in the Greek. The readers of the translation are expected to know that Egypt is the name of a country.
They were not faithful brings out the meaning of “did not continue in” (Revised Standard Version). They did not keep the promise to be “God’s people.” They were not faithful to the covenant may be rendered as “They did not continue to do what the covenant said they should do” or “… what they should do in accordance with the agreement.”
Paid no attention to means “disregarded” or even “rejected.” I paid no attention to them may be rendered negatively as “I let them go their own way,” or one may employ some such expression as “I abandoned them” or “I went off and left them.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .