There are problems involved in the punctuation of verses 9-11, since these are stated as the direct words of God rather than what the Holy Spirit says (as in the introduction to verse 7). For this reason it may be necessary to make a shift in pronouns, and it may also be important to introduce a new set of quotation marks beginning with verse 9 and ending with verse 11. It may also be useful to shift the order of says God and place it at the beginning of verse 9. A shift in the tense may also be required; for example, “God said….”

The writer rearranges the text of Psalm 95 slightly in order to make his point with greater emphasis. The changes, following Revised Standard Version, are as follows: (a) “Therefore” is added at the beginning of verse 10. (b) “For forty years,” verse 9, is joined to “saw my works” and not joined with “I was provoked,” verse 10, as in both the Hebrew and the Greek of Psalm 95. (Verse 17, however, follows the Septuagint text.) (c) “That generation” becomes “this generation” (despite Revised Standard Version, New English Bible). The writer of Hebrews may already be thinking of the relevance of the psalm to his readers’ own situation.

The first part of verse 9 makes it clear that the Greek word here means test, not “tempt”; it is literally “where your fathers tested in testing” (using two different Greek words for “test”). Good News Translation‘s put me to the test and tried me translates both verbs. This is not essential, since they mean the same, and repetition in some languages does not increase emphasis but makes the sentence more complex. Moffatt has “put me to the proof”; compare Revised Standard Version.

The rendering of they put me to the test and tried me will depend upon the manner in which a similar expression has been translated at the end of verse 8. In some languages this may be expressed effectively as “they opposed me strongly to see what I would do.”

Revised Standard Version‘s literal translation of verse 9b, “and (they) saw my works for forty years,” may be understood either as (a) “although they had seen the good I had done for them for forty years past” or as (b) “and they saw the harm I did to them for the next forty years.”

Good News Translation, and most other translations which make a clear choice, take it to mean (a): “The Israelites had experienced God’s goodness for forty years, and were still so ungrateful as to put him to the test” (compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). It is also possible, and perhaps simpler, to take the text to mean (b): “The Israelites put God to the test, and as a result God punished them for forty years.” Not only verse 17 (With whom was God angry for forty years?), but also Numbers 14, which tells the story to which Psalm 95 refers, supports (b); see especially Numbers 14.33-35, part of which Hebrews quotes in 3.17. If (b) is followed, verse 9b may be translated “and saw what I did to them for forty years.”

The traditional system of verse numbering places for forty years in verse 10. But many editions of the Greek New Testament, as well as Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, and Zürcher Bibel, make it clear by the arrangement of the poetic lines that the phrase is linked with the preceding clause in verse 9 and should be followed by a full stop. Good News Translation simply includes the phrase in verse 9, ignoring the tradition in order to retain clarity. Most translators may wish to follow TEV.

It is unusual for a rendering of although they had seen what I did for forty years to be completely neutral, that is to say, ambiguous as to whether God’s actions were helpful or harmful to the people in question. Therefore it may be necessary to select one or the other meaning involved and to translate either as “although they had seen how I helped them for forty years” or “although they had seen how I had punished them for forty years.” Whichever interpretation is followed, the alternative should be placed in a marginal note.

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 .