The writer begins a series of three quotations. He says: the writer thinks of the Old Testament words (Psa 22.22) as spoken by Jesus. Jesus remains the subject of the verb. To God is not in the Greek but is implied. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy weakens the meaning by translating “as scripture says.”

In order to indicate clearly that the following statement is a quotation from Scripture, it would be possible to translate He says to God as “He says to God by using words from the holy writings.” However, the reference system may itself be sufficient to indicate to readers that the words are a quotation.

A literal rendering of I will tell my brothers what you have done could be a reference only to Jesus’ own kin. It may therefore be necessary to translate “I will tell my followers what you have done.” Though the term brothers in a number of biblical contexts can be translated as “fellow believers,” such an expression would not be appropriate in this context.

The two halves of this quotation are parallel; see the discussion on parallelism in 1.7. In an Old Testament setting, my brothers … in their meeting means fellow members of the people of God (Israel) gathered for worship in the Temple. For the writer of Hebrews, it means Jesus’ followers gathered in worship.

Tell … what you have done is literally “proclaim your name,” which means “tell people what you are like,” for the “name” and the person are one (see comment on 1.4).

The Greek word for meeting became in New Testament times the common term for describing Christians meeting for worship, and only later became the specifically Christian word “church” (King James Version). I will praise you in their meeting may be expressed as “I will praise you when they gather for worship” or “when they gather to worship you, I will praise you.”

In some languages it is necessary to indicate praise by suggesting something of the content; for example, I will praise you may be expressed as “I will say how wonderful you are.” Sometimes even direct discourse is required; for example, I will praise you may be rendered as “I will say to them, ‘You are truly great.’ ”

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 .