The first part of this verse emphasizes the comparison made in verse 1 between the readers and the Israelites at the time of the Exodus. This is the point of For. The conjunction For indicates a rather loose causal relationship. It would be wrong to translate For in such a way as to suggest that the first sentence of verse 2 is linked directly with the last clause of verse 1. In fact, it was not because believers heard the Good News that they failed to receive the promised rest. It may therefore be necessary to drop the causal conjunction.
We have heard the Good News is literally “we have been evangelized,” “we have had the Good News preached to us” (see 2.1). The tense of the Greek verb implies that the effects of hearing the Good News are lasting. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch suggests that the writer means specifically “this piece of good news about the rest,” and this makes good sense. Other translations suggest he means the Christian message in general. It is a point in favor of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch that the same verb for “to tell the good news” is used in verse 6 about the Israelites, where it can scarcely mean “the good Christian message,” unless, as a few scholars have thought, Christ is thought of as speaking Psalm 95 to Israel before his incarnation (see comments on 3.7). There may be advantages in rendering we have heard the Good News in such a way as to specify the particular aspect of the Good News, namely, the promise of rest. Otherwise this expression could be interpreted to mean that the Good News as preached by Jesus Christ was also preached to the Jewish people as they left Egypt. The comparison may then be translated as “we heard the Good News about this rest in the same way that they heard about it.”
Just as they did is emphatic. They are all the people who were led out of Egypt (3.16), whom the writer identifies with the people who sinned (3.17). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch makes this explicit: “just like the people in the wilderness” (compare Num 14.29).
It did them no good may be expressed as “having heard about it was no benefit to them” or “they did not profit from having heard about the rest.”
The Greek which Good News Translation translates they did not accept it with faith contains a difficult textual problem. A literal translation would be “not having been joined in faith with those who heard.” “Not having been joined” suggests a continuing state; “those who heard” suggests a single past event. The main textual problem is to know whether “not having been joined” is singular, referring to the message, or plural, referring to the mass of the Israelites at the time of the Exodus (the people who sinned, 3.17; compare 3.16, 18). Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version, and most other translations prefer the singular, but the UBS Greek text has the plural, and this is followed by Jerusalem Bible and Bible de Jérusalem, which translate “they did not share the faith of those who listened.” In the setting of Numbers 14, this would mean that the whole community of Israel (verse 10) did not share the faith and loyalty of Caleb and Joshua (verses 6-9, 24); compare Hebrews 4.8.
The translation of with faith varies, partly according to the text chosen. If a text making “not having been joined” singular is used, the meaning is that the “message” was not mixed or united with faith on the part of those who heard it. In other words, they did not respond positively by accepting and believing the message. If a text using the plural is chosen, the meaning is that those who heard the message but did not believe it were not united in faith (or, less probably, “by faith”) with those who both heard and believed the message.
They did not accept it with faith may be expressed idiomatically in some languages as “they did not receive the message in their hearts,” “they did not trust what was said about the rest which God had promised,” or “they did not have confidence in their hearts that God would give them rest.”
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 .