As Revised Standard Version‘s “So then” shows, this is the statement to which the whole argument of verses 3-8 has led up. Good News Translation‘s As it is, however should not be misunderstood as indicating a contrast only with verse 8. In order to indicate a result, one may employ some such expression as “As a result of all this” or “Therefore.”

In place of the English construction which employs there in the subject position and retains for the predicate position the so-called “new information,” many languages use quite a different construction; for example, “God’s people will still be able to rest” or “it is still possible for God’s people to rest.”

Still is implied in the Greek. Bible en français courant has “a rest … remains offered to the people of God.”

The simile a rest like God’s resting on the seventh day is literally “a sabbath rest,” a word which the author may have invented but whose meaning is clear from verse 4. The two problems for the translator are (a) whether a note on “sabbath” is needed (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has simply “time of rest”) and (b) whether the “rest” of God’s people is simply compared (Good News Translation like) to God’s resting on the seventh day, or whether the two are identified. The references to the passage of time in verses 3 and 7 suggest that different “Todays” are involved, but that God’s resting place remains the same. If so, this would imply the translation “the resting place God used on the seventh day is still available to his people.”

Like God’s resting on the seventh day may be combined with the previous statement by saying “for God’s people to rest in the way similar to the manner in which God rested on the seventh day.” In some instances, however, the particular seventh day must be stated: “on the seventh day after he began to create the world.”

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 .