9But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak: 10for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which ye showed toward his name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and still do minister. 11And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end: 12that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

13For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he sware by himself, 14saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 15And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16For men swear by the greater: and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. 17Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; 18that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us: 19which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and stedfast and entering into that which is within the veil; 20whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.