These verses form a transition between verses 1-11 and 14-29. It is therefore not surprising that some editions, such as the UBS Greek New Testament, put them at the end of the previous section, while others, like Good News Translation, put them at the beginning of a new section. Languages vary in the ways in which they deal with transitional material, and each group of translators should do what is most natural in its own language.
Most of verse 12 consists of a free quotation from Isaiah 35.3 or Sirach 25.23 (in Greek). Verse 13a, and perhaps strengthen in verse 12, are based on Proverbs 4.26. Since several Old Testament texts are involved, it is probably unnecessary to use quotation marks, but footnote references may be given. Then in verse 12 is not part of the quotation. It is added to emphasize the following words. It may also help to mark the beginning of a new section.
The translator needs to decide whether the metaphors of tired hands or “drooping hands” (Revised Standard Version) and trembling knees are natural in the receptor language. Phillips skillfully adapts the first metaphor with “tighten your loosening grip”; Barclay has “fill the listless hands with energy.” Your, in both places, is literally “the.” There is no doubt about whom the parts of the body belong to, but your is natural in English. Alternatively, the definite article “the” could be omitted, since tired hands have not been mentioned before. Most translations have either “weak” (Good News Bible third edition) or trembling, and this is no doubt the meaning of the passage quoted. However, the Greek can also mean “disabled” or even “paralyzed.” In the light of verse 13b, perhaps that is how the writer of Hebrews understood this word in the quotation. If so, strengthen could mean straighten, as in Luke 13.13.
It is in fact rare that one can reproduce the metaphors in verse 12. For example, a literal translation of Lift up your tired hands might only suggest demanding more work from people who are already tired out from labor. One may translate this figurative expression as “Be strong and be encouraged” or “… take heart.”
Verse 13 falls into three parts, the first two of which raise distinct problems.
(a) Keep walking on straight paths: this quotation from Proverbs may be translated “Make smooth (or, straight) paths for your feet.” The word which Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version translate straight includes the ideas of a “path” being neither crooked nor rough. The underlying nonfigurative meaning may be either (i) behave in a just way, or (ii) take special care of the weak. common language translations choose or suggest (i). This choice is supported by your in verse 12 (not part of the quotation) and by the tense of the verb for “Make,” which is the basis for Good News Translation‘s Keep walking. There is no clear evidence in this passage that the writer is distinguishing between the “strong” and the “weak” as, for example, Paul does in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8. All members of the Christian community are in danger of losing heart and giving up their faith, and the writer’s message of encouragement (13.22) is addressed to them all. For this reason he adds “your” to the second quotation (verse 13a, see Revised Standard Version), and Good News Translation is justified in adding your in two places to the first quotation (verse 12).
It is possible to express the metaphor Keep walking on straight paths as a simile; for example, “Keep walking, as it were, on straight paths.” But this may still be almost meaningless, since walking on straight paths may have nothing to do with proper behavior. If one adopts a nonfigurative translation of keep walking on straight paths, for example, “Behave in a just way,” the rest of the sentence must also be modified, and this may be far more difficult. One alternative may be “so that you might not be weakened in your lives but rather become strong.”
(b) So that the lame foot may not be disabled is difficult. Foot is implied (compare Revised Standard Version), and the writer may equally well be referring back to knees in verse 12.
The more common meaning of the verb translated be disabled is “turn away” (Bible de Jérusalem, but not Jerusalem Bible), but this does not fit the context here. Most modern translations, including Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version, suggest some abnormal physical condition such as “lameness,” which the writer hopes will not get worse, for example, by dislocation of the limb, but instead will be cured. This reflects the pattern of the argument in such passages as 6.1-12 and 10.19-39. There, positive statements both precede and follow stern warnings that the readers’ spiritual condition cannot remain as it is, but will get worse if it does not improve.
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 .