Compare 10.34. The source of this quotation is not quite certain; Deuteronomy 31.6, 8; Genesis 28.15; Joshua 1.5; and 1 Chronicles 28.20 are all possible. This verse brings another change of theme, as the new paragraph in common language translations, Moffatt, and New English Bible shows. However, sexual immorality and the love of money are often linked, as in 1 Corinthians 5.10-11, as different kinds of selfishness. Other translations do not begin a new paragraph here, but in common language translations shorter paragraphs are generally better.

The word translated lives is singular and means the way of life of each reader, considered collectively. Whether singular or plural is used depends on how the receptor language deals with objects in the possession of each member of a group; Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente has the singular “life.” The thought of verse 5a (though not the language) is found also in Luke 3.14.

Keep your lives free from the love of money may seem to be a rather roundabout way of rendering “Do not love money” or “Do not desire to have a lot of money.” The Greek contains no suggestion of freedom as opposed to slavery, but the context suggests a continuing process.

For and, it may be more natural to use a word meaning “but” or “on the contrary.” What you have renders a plural expression in the Greek text, “the things you have.” Be satisfied with what you have may be rendered as “be happy that you have what you have.”

God is clearly implied; in the Greek, “himself” (Revised Standard Version “he”) is emphatic and cannot mean “scripture.”

Never in both cases gives the meaning of what is in Greek an emphatic “not.”

It is important in rendering I will never leave you; I will never abandon you to employ two expressions which will not seem to be merely repetitive. This can usually be done by making the second term stronger than the first; for example, “I will not go away from you; I will not leave you without anything” or even “… leave you to be harmed by others”—which would be the implication of a term such as abandon or “desert.” Alternatively, a single strong expression may be used.

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 .