This sentence may be understood either as a rhetorical question, as in Revised Standard Version and the UBS Greek New Testament, or as a statement, as in Good News Translation. Even if the Greek text is punctuated as a question, here again the translator must decide whether rhetorical questions are natural and easily understood in the receptor language.

Good News Translation arranges the three parts of the verse in their most natural order for English, although this is not necessarily the most natural order for other languages: (a) purified, (b) not feel guilty, (c) sacrifices would stop. The translator should not follow Good News Translation or any other translation mechanically. He should instead consider the relation between the following statements:
(a) The worshipers have once been purified.
(b) People are no longer conscious of sin.
(c) Sacrifices stop.

Part (b), and less directly part (c), are consequences of part (a). When the translator has found a provisional translation for these three statements, he should then take account of the fact that all this is an unreal condition, that is, something which would have happened if things were different, but which in fact did not.

Really translates the writer’s characteristic expression “once.” It contrasts with year after year in verses 1 and 3 and could therefore be kept in translation.

The noun phrase the people worshiping God may be restructured as a noun expression followed by a relative clause, for example, “the people who worship God.”

It may be difficult to speak of “being purified from sins,” and therefore it may be more appropriate to speak of “becoming rid of one’s sins” or “having one’s sins removed.” Sometimes the expression may be more effective in a negative form; for example, “had become no longer defiled by their sins.”

Feel guilty translates the Greek word which was translated heart in 9.9 and consciences in 9.14. As here, it usually implies “consciousness of sin,” that is, “a bad conscience.” They would not feel guilty of sin any more may be expressed as “they would no longer feel guilty because of the sins they had done.” However, the concept of “being guilty of sins” is often expressed in idiomatic ways; for example, “their hearts would no longer feel heavy because of their sins,” “their sins would no longer be following them,” or “their minds would no longer be killing themselves because of their sins.”

All sacrifices would stop may be rendered as “there would be no more sacrifices,” “people would no longer offer sacrifices,” “… cause sacrifices to be made,” or “… cause animals to be sacrificed.”

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 .