7  Wherefore, even as says the Holy Spirit, To-day if ye will hear his voice, 8  harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness; 9  where your fathers tempted me, by proving me, and saw my works forty years. 10  Wherefore I was wroth with this generation, and said, They always err in heart; and they have not known my ways; 11  so I swore in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest. 12  See, brethren, lest there be in any one of you a wicked heart of unbelief, in turning away from the living God. 13  But encourage yourselves each day, as long as it is called To-day, that none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14  For we are become companions of the Christ if indeed we hold the beginning of the assurance firm to the end; 15  in that it is said, To-day if ye will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation; 16  (for who was it, who, having heard, provoked? but was it not all who came out of Egypt by Moses? 17  And with whom was he wroth forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 18  And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to those who had not hearkened to the word? 19  And we see that they could not enter in on account of unbelief;)

Chapter 4

1  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left of entering into his rest, any one of you might seem to have failed of it. 2  For indeed we have had glad tidings presented to us, even as they also; but the word of the report did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard. 3  For we enter into the rest who have believed; as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest; although the works had been completed from the foundation of the world. 4  For he has said somewhere of the seventh day thus, And God rested on the seventh day from all his works: 5  and in this again, If they shall enter into my rest. 6  Seeing therefore it remains that some enter into it, and those who first received the glad tidings did not enter in on account of not hearkening to the word, 7  again he determines a certain day, saying, in David, ‘To-day,’ after so long a time; (according as it has been said before), To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 8  For if Jesus had brought them into rest, he would not have spoken afterwards about another day. 9  There remains then a sabbatism to the people of God. 10  For he that has entered into his rest, he also has rested from his works, as God did from his own.

11  Let us therefore use diligence to enter into that rest, that no one may fall after the same example of not hearkening to the word. 12  For the word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13  And there is not a creature unapparent before him; but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do. 14  Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. 15  For we have not a high priest not able to sympathise with our infirmities, but tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart. 16  Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help.