Fold and coat suggest western clothing, whereas the Greek refers to rolling up a cloak or a wrap. Good News Translation is able to make this slight change for readers of English, since it does not affect the rest of the passage nor alter the meaning of the comparison.

You will fold them up like a coat must be rendered in such a way as to suggest the useless nature of the worn-out garment; for example, “you will roll them up like a worn-out coat.”

The writer repeats like clothes from verse 11. The word is singular in Greek, but clothes has no singular in English, and “a garment” is not common language. By introducing this repetition, which is not in the Old Testament text, the writer somewhat alters the meaning. In Greek as in English, the word translated be changed can mean “be made different,” or it can be used of taking off old or dirty clothes and then putting on others. The writer may be combining both meanings. If a translation is being made into a language which uses different words for “change” in general and “change clothes,” the more general meaning should be chosen if possible.

In view of the difficulty of understanding the clause and they will be changed like clothes, it is probably best to choose a rather general rendering; for example, “they will be changed like old clothes.”

You are always the same may be better expressed in some languages as “you never change.”

Your life never ends is literally “your years do not fail.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “your years do not end,” and Bijbel in Gewone Taal “… give out.” This clause may be expressed as “you never die” or “you always keep on living.”

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 .