Hebrews 3-4
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Our Apostle and High Priest
3 Therefore, holy brothers and companions in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession;(A) 2 He was faithful to the One who appointed Him, just as Moses was in all God’s household. 3 For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. 4 Now every house is built by someone, but the One who built everything is God.(B) 5 Moses was faithful as a servant(C) in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. 6 But Christ was faithful as a Son over His household. And we are that household if we hold on to the courage and the confidence of our hope.[a](D)
Warning against Unbelief
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
Today, if you hear His voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
and saw My works 10 for 40 years.
Therefore I was provoked with that generation
and said, “They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known My ways.”
11 So I swore in My anger,
“They will not enter My rest.”(E)[b]
12 Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. 13 But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.(F) 14 For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality[c] that we had at the start.(G) 15 As it is said:
16 For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it really all who came out of Egypt under Moses?(I) 17 And who was He provoked with for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?(J) 18 And who did He swear to that they would not enter His rest, if not those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
The Promised Rest
4 Therefore, while the promise to enter His rest remains, let us fear that none of you should miss it.[e] 2 For we also have received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard did not benefit them, since they were not united with those who heard it in faith[f](K) 3 (for we who have believed enter the rest), in keeping with what[g] He has said:
And yet His works have been finished since the foundation of the world, 4 for somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this way:
5 Again, in that passage He says, They will never enter My rest.[j] 6 Since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience,(N) 7 again, He specifies a certain day—today—speaking through David after such a long time, as previously stated:
8 For if Joshua(P) had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. 10 For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His.(Q) 11 Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.
12 For the word of God is living and effective(R) and sharper than any double-edged sword,(S) penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.(T) 13 No creature is hidden from Him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom(U) we must give an account.
Our Great High Priest
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to the confession.(V) 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are,(W) yet without sin.(X) 16 Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.
Footnotes
- Hebrews 3:6 Other mss add firm to the end
- Hebrews 3:11 Ps 95:7-11
- Hebrews 3:14 Or confidence
- Hebrews 3:15 Ps 95:7-8
- Hebrews 4:1 Or that any of you might seem to have missed it
- Hebrews 4:2 Other mss read since it was not united by faith in those who heard
- Hebrews 4:3 Or rest), just as
- Hebrews 4:3 Ps 95:11
- Hebrews 4:4 Gn 2:2
- Hebrews 4:5 Ps 95:11
- Hebrews 4:7 Ps 95:7-8
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