Fellow citizen is the text preferred by the UBS Greek New Testament and most modern translations, rather than “neighbour,” followed by Jerusalem Bible (but not Bible de Jérusalem) and Translator’s New Testament. Fellow citizen may be translated in some languages as “one who belongs to the same nation.”

Revised Standard Version‘s “fellow” and “brother” are expressed by parallel terms in Hebrew poetry, and these are similar in meaning. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy combines the two clauses: “No one will have to teach anyone, neither his companion nor his brother, so that they know the Lord….” In this type of context fellow countryman may be rendered as “person of the same clan.” The term rendered fellow citizen is often more inclusive than the term rendered fellow countryman, but in a poetic passage such as this the difference is not emphasized.

It may seem strange to command people to “know” someone; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “learn to know,” “get to know the Lord.” For they will all know me, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “everyone will know who I am.” However, “to know someone,” for Hebrew thought, involved experience and a personal relationship. Because of the awkwardness in commanding someone to “know” an individual, it may be better to place this type of statement in an indirect form with some kind of auxiliary or affix indicating obligation or necessity; for example, “No one of them will have to teach anyone of the same nation or of the same clan that he should know the Lord” or “… come to know the Lord.” In some instances it may be better to translate Know the Lord as “Acknowledge the Lord as God.”

For they will all know me may be expressed as “For they will all acknowledge that I am their God” or “They will all recognize me as God.”

The phrase from the least to the greatest involves status in society and may be rendered as “from the least important to the most important” or possibly “from the little people to the big people.” Sometimes this is expressed idiomatically in terms of the kinds of houses that people have; for example, “from those who live in the smallest houses to those who live in the largest houses.”

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 .