Hebrews 3–4

Chapter 3

¹Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus, ²who is faithful to him that has constituted him, as Moses also in all his house. ³For he has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, by how much he that has built it has more honour than the house. ⁴For every house is built by some one; but he who has built all things is God. ⁵And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house, as a ministering servant, for a testimony of the things to be spoken after; ⁶but Christ, as Son over his house, whose house are we, if indeed we hold fast the boldness and the boast of hope firm to the end.

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

Chapter 4

¹Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left of entering into his rest, any one of you might seem to have failed of it. ²For 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. ³For 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. ⁴For he has said somewhere of the seventh day thus, And God rested on the seventh day from all his works: ⁵and in this again, If they shall enter into my rest. ⁶Seeing 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, ⁷again 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. ⁸For if Jesus had brought them into rest, he would not have spoken afterwards about another day. ⁹There remains then a sabbatism to the people of God. ¹⁰For he that has entered into his rest, he also has rested from his works, as God did from his own.

¹¹Let us therefore use diligence to enter into that rest, that no one may fall after the same example of not hearkening to the word. ¹²For 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. ¹³And 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. ¹⁴Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. ¹⁵For we have not a high priest not able to sympathise with our infirmities, but tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart. ¹⁶Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help.