י (Yod)
4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women 8
cooked their own children,
who became their food, 9
when my people 10 were destroyed. 11
9:15 And so he is the mediator 15 of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance he has promised, 16 since he died 17 to set them free from the violations committed under the first covenant. 9:16 For where there is a will, the death of the one who made it must be proven. 18 9:17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it carries no force while the one who made it is alive.
1 tn Grk “For behold.”
2 tn Grk “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed!”
3 tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.
4 tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”
5 tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”
6 tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”
7 tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”
8 tn Heb “the hands of compassionate women.”
9 tn Heb “eating.” The infinitive construct (from I בָּרָה, barah) is translated as a noun. Three passages employ the verb (2 Sam 3:35; 12:17; 13:5,6,10) for eating when ill or in mourning.
10 tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”
11 tn Heb “in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
12 tn This verb occurs in the Greek middle voice, which here intensifies the role of the subject, Christ, in accomplishing the action: “he alone secured”; “he and no other secured.”
13 tn Grk “for the purifying of the flesh.” The “flesh” here is symbolic of outward or ritual purity in contrast to inner purity, that of the conscience (cf. Heb 9:9).
14 tc The reading adopted by the translation is attested by many authorities (A D* K P 365 1739* al). But many others (א D2 0278 33 1739c 1881 Ï lat sa) read “your” instead of “our.” The diversity of evidence makes this a difficult case to decide from external evidence alone. The first and second person pronouns differ by only one letter in Greek, as in English, also making this problem difficult to decide based on internal evidence and transcriptional probability. In the context, the author’s description of sacrificial activities seems to invite the reader to compare his own possible participation in OT liturgy as over against the completed work of Christ, so the second person pronoun “your” might make more sense. On the other hand, TCGNT 599 argues that “our” is preferable because the author of Hebrews uses direct address (i.e., the second person) only in the hortatory sections. What is more, the author seems to prefer the first person in explanatory remarks or when giving the logical grounds for an assertion (cf. Heb 4:15; 7:14). It is hard to reach a definitive conclusion in this case, but the data lean slightly in favor of the first person pronoun.
15 tn The Greek word μεσίτης (mesith", “mediator”) in this context does not imply that Jesus was a mediator in the contemporary sense of the word, i.e., he worked for compromise between opposing parties. Here the term describes his function as the one who was used by God to enact a new covenant which established a new relationship between God and his people, but entirely on God’s terms.
16 tn Grk “the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
17 tn Grk “a death having occurred.”
18 tn Grk “there is a necessity for the death of the one who made it to be proven.”
19 tn Grk “neglect doing good and fellowship.”
20 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.