Then means “therefore.” It does not refer to time, but indicates a conclusion drawn from verse 5b: “Because God has said that he will never abandon us, we can say with confidence, ‘I will not be afraid.’ ”

It may be necessary to indicate to whom a particular statement is made. Accordingly, the first part of verse 6 may be rendered as “Therefore we should have confidence in God and say to people.”

The quotation is from Psalm 118.6. The result of the confidence is given in line 2 of the quotation, as Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch makes clear by putting it first: “We can say with confidence: ‘I will have no fear, for the Lord helps me.’ ” This is effective in itself, but takes some of the emphasis away from The Lord is my helper, which Bible en français courant expresses more strongly by “The Lord is the one who comes to my help.” The word for helper, surprisingly, is not used anywhere else in the New Testament, but it is common in the Septuagint. It suggests “someone who responds to a call for help” rather than “an assistant.”

Modern translations omit King James Version‘s “and” before “I will not fear.” This is more effective in translation, and the word is bracketed as doubtful in the UBS Greek text.

The writer of Hebrews probably changes the punctuation of the Septuagint text, which means “I will not fear what man will do to me.” The change to a rhetorical question, What can anyone (Revised Standard Version “man”) do to me? is more vivid.

“Man” (Revised Standard Version) renders a quite general Greek term, which refers to human beings in contrast with Lord. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “a human being” and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente “men,” with the same meaning. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy restructures to read “I will not fear what any man can do to me.” Women are not excluded.

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 .