The last quotation in this chapter, like the first, is introduced by a rhetorical question which is equal to a strong negative statement. The quotation is from Psalm 110.1, the Old Testament text most often quoted in the New Testament. Translators may wish to check the other places where this text is quoted (see Psa 110.1 reference footnote in Good News Bible) and avoid variations not made necessary by the context in which it is quoted. The first readers of Hebrews would remember that in the psalm, the verse begins “The LORD [God] said to my Lord [understood as Christ].” The rhetorical question therefore calls for the answer “To Christ, not to any angel.”
The literal translation is clumsy in most languages: “Sit on my right, until I put your enemies (as) a footstool of your feet.”
My right side: as in verse 3, it may be necessary again to indicate by some marginal note that the right side was a position of honor and dignity.
Sit here at my right side must be expressed in some languages as “Sit here beside me at my right side,” since the emphasis is upon both the association and the honor.
Until I put: it is not certain whether the writer of Hebrews thinks of Christ as continuing to “sit” even after God has conquered his enemies. The Hebrew leaves this possibility open, as in Isaiah 42.4, quoted in Matthew 12.20. However, this is not the most natural meaning of the Greek, and it is possible that the writer of Hebrews thought of Christ as having a further period of activity in the last days (see 10.13, where Sit is replaced by waits; also 9.28).
Some translations avoid the repetition footstool … feet by using a word like “stool” which is not related to feet, although the Greek words are related; for example, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and Revised Standard Version. Other translations remove the first part of the metaphor and translate “until I put your enemies under your feet” (Bijbel in Gewone Taal, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). The metaphor is based on an old custom: there are ancient pictures of kings with their feet resting on the heads or necks of conquered enemies.
In some languages it may seem rather strange that God would say to anyone that he should sit at the right side, while God went about putting enemies as a footstool under someone’s feet. The relationship, of course, is not that of a direct agent but that of a causative agent. Therefore one may render until I put your enemies as a footstool under your feet as “until I cause your enemies to become, as it were, a footstool beneath your feet.”
In some cultures people normally sit on an object which is formally more or less equivalent to what is in the western world regarded as a footstool. A functional equivalent of a footstool in such a culture is therefore often spoken of as a “foot stick” or a “footboard,” a low-lying object made of wood which keeps a person’s feet off what is frequently the cold, damp floor.
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 .