The Greek text has the before both city and foundations (permanent is implied). To this extent Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation are formally more accurate than King James Version “a city” (in verse 16 the Greek has no article). However, this verse makes a transition from the idea of a country (verse 9) to that of a city.

A literal rendering of For Abraham was waiting for the city may be both obscure and misleading. It is easy enough to speak of “waiting for the arrival of a person,” but “to wait for a city” may be meaningless, unless one is waiting for “the existence of such a city,” or even better, “the coming into existence of such a city.” The most appropriate equivalent may be “For Abraham was looking forward to living in the city which God had designed and built.”

Good News Translation, unlike other common language translations, reverses the order of with permanent foundations and which God has designed and built. The latter clause which God has designed and built, like its equivalent in Greek, makes a stronger climax in English. Designed and built correspond to Greek nouns for “designer” and “builder.” These nouns are never used elsewhere in the New Testament in speaking of God, though “builder” is used in pagan writings in speaking of less important gods. The meaning here does not contradict the idea of God as creator, but in fact presupposes it; see verse 3. Which God has designed and built may be rendered as “which God had planned and constructed” or “of which God was the architect and builder.”

The phrase the city with permanent foundations may involve problems in translation, since foundations normally belong to buildings, not to cities themselves. What is important about the foundations is the aspect of permanence, so that this is a reference to “the eternal city” or “the city which will always exist.”

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 .