Most translations, except Good News Translation and perhaps Bible en français courant, make this verse refer to a single group of people who suffer two types of punishment: (a) mocking and whipping, which last for a short time; and (b) being chained and imprisoned, which are worse because they last for a longer period. Barclay makes this explicit: “Some had to face mockery and the lash, and the even worse fate of chains and imprisonment”; similarly New English Bible “Others, again, had to face jeers and flogging, even fetters and prison bars.” However, the noun translated mocked may itself suggest torture, as in 2 Maccabees 7.7, where New English Bible has “brutality.” If this is so, the verse as a whole will mean “Others, again, were tortured and whipped, and tied up and put in prison as well.”

Put in chains and taken off to prison should not be taken to mean that they were chained only while on their way to prison. It was common to chain people while in prison (for example, Acts 28.20 and Col 4.18) or on trial (Acts 26.29).

The passive expressions in this verse may be readily changed into active ones by saying “People mocked and whipped some of those who trusted God, and others they put in chains and kept in prison.”

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 .