Instead (literally “but”) strongly marks the contrast with verse 5.

As it is said somewhere in the Scriptures is literally “affirms somewhere someone saying.” This clause is a curiously vague way of introducing a psalm attributed to David. In the Scriptures is clearly implied. “Affirms” is related to the Greek word translated as added his witness in verse 4. The writer is continuing to pile up evidence for the supremacy of Christ.

As it is said somewhere in the Scriptures must be rendered in some languages as “as it is written somewhere in the Scriptures,” since “saying” can only be related directly to speech, and anything involved in writing must be mentioned as such. However, the passive expression it is said must often be made active; for example, “as someone has written somewhere in the holy writings.”

It is rare that one can use for Scriptures merely an expression “writings,” for the reference is unlikely to be clear. For that reason the expression “holy writings” is often necessary.

The first two lines of the quotation are in close parallel (see discussion on 1.7). Man and mere man (literally “son of man”) mean the same, and the Greek expressions for think of (literally “remember”) and care for are closer to each other than are their English equivalents. In biblical thought, when God “remembered” or thought of someone, something happened to that person; that is, God’s thought always resulted in action. The problem for the translator is to make it clear that the two lines mean the same, but to do so without using monotonous repetition. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch chooses the radical solution, adopted in many places in the Good News Translation Old Testament, of combining the two lines: “What is man, that you ask about him?” In any language which does not use poetic parallelism, translators should consider whether the two lines can be combined without loss of meaning.

In the psalm, as in Ezekiel 2.1, “man” and “son of man” mean the same thing. However, in the Gospels Jesus often uses the phrase “Son of man” as an indirect way of speaking of himself. Hebrews does not use “son of man” except in this quotation. The question as to whether the author understands “son of man” in the quotation to refer to Christ is dealt with in the discussion of “to him” in verses 8-9 (see below).

In a number of languages it is impossible to introduce the expression O God in the position which it has in Good News Translation, namely, What is man, O God, that you should think of him. A direct vocative such as O God must generally occur first in a sentence, or occur next to the word for you; for example, “God, what is man that you should think of him?” or “What is man that you, God, should think of him?”

In this context man refers to human beings in general—certainly not to any particular male—and therefore it may be far more satisfactory in many languages to translate “What are people that you, God, should think of them?” or “… pay attention to them?” or “… be concerned with them?”

It may be even necessary to indicate something of the significance of the question by amplifying the implication of the interrogative pronoun What; for example, “How important are people that you, God, should be concerned with them?”

It may be important in some languages to make clear the nature of this rhetorical question. This may be done by employing the phrase mere man as a kind of response to the double question; for example, “What are people that you, God, should be concerned with them or should take care of them? They are nothing more than people.”

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 .