Hebrews 9:17

after men are dead This rendering expresses the meaning rightly a will is only valid "in cases of death," "in the case of men who are dead." Ex vi termini, "a testament," is the disposition which a man makes of his affairs with a view to his death. The attempt to confine the word diathçkçto the sense of "covenant" which it holds throughout the rest of the Epistle has led to the most strained and impossible distortion of these words ἐπὶ νεκροῖς in a way which is but too familiar in Scripture commentaries. They have been explained to mean "over dead victims," &c.; but all such explanations fall to the ground when the special meaning of diathçkçin these two verses is recognised. The author thinks it worth while to notice, in passing, that death is the condition of inheritance by testament, just as death is necessary to ratify a covenant(Genesis 15:7-10; Jeremiah 34:18).

otherwise it is of no strength at all … The words are better taken as a question "Since is there any validity in it at all while the testator is alive?" This is an appeal to the reader's own judgment.