Then I said is unavoidably awkward after he said in verse 5, since the writer is fitting an Old Testament quotation into a new setting. (In Psalm 40, verse 6 is part of the psalmist’s meditation, and it is quoted in Hebrews 10 as verses 5b-6; and verses 7-8a, which are quoted in Hebrews 10.7, describe the next event.) Not only is this expression Then I said somewhat awkward at the beginning of verse 7, but it is completely misleading, for many readers will interpret the I as being the writer of the letter. It may therefore be necessary in some languages to translate Then I said as “Then Christ said,” with adjustment of quotation marks as necessary.

Here I am is better than Revised Standard Version‘s “I have come,” since the only movement implied is probably in the opposite direction, away from God to earth.

A vocative expression such as O God normally occurs at the beginning of a direct quotation addressed to a particular person. The quotation may be rendered as “O God, I am here to do your will” or “… what you want me to do.” However, it may be impossible to insert a direct vocative into direct discourse, and therefore it may be necessary to relate God to the statement “Then Christ said.” The beginning of verse 7 may thus have “Then Christ said to God, ‘I am here to do your will.’ ”

The third line of this verse in Good News Translation appears as the second line in the Greek. It is an aside, that is, a parenthetical remark. It is written renders an expression often used in introducing quotations from Scripture. This introduction is not used anywhere else in Hebrews, but it is very common in the rest of the New Testament; see, for example, Mark 1.2; Acts 7.42; Romans 1.17. It suggests “it has been written, and the writing remains valid.” Just as it is written of me may be expressed as “in the same way that the words speak about me” or “just as what is written is about me.”

Of the Law is not part of the text of Hebrews, nor is it part of the Hebrew text of Psalm 40.8. The writer may be thinking of a heavenly book in which people thought that God wrote down everything people did (see Psa 139.16; Heb 12.23). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch suggests that the reference is to the Old Testament as a whole, “as it is foretold in the Holy Scriptures.” However, in the light of constant references to the “Law” of Moses, for example, in 7.5 and 10.8, book of the Law is adopted by Bible en français courant and Translator’s New Testament. Other translations simplify the Greek “roll of the book” to “scroll” (New English Bible) or “book” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy and New American Bible). The book of the Law may be expressed in some languages as “the book which contains the laws” or “the book containing the laws given through Moses.” In this way the reference is specifically to the Torah, in other words, the first five books of the Old Testament.

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 .