Hebrews 3:11–4:11

^11*I was angry and made a solemn promise:

‘They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!’ ”

¹²My fellow-believers, be careful that no one among you has a heart so evil and unbelieving as to turn away from the living God. ¹³Instead, in order that none of you be deceived by sin and become stubborn, you must help one another every day, as long as the word “Today” in the scripture applies to us. ¹⁴For we are all partners with Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the beginning.

^15*This is what the scripture says:

“If you hear God’s voice today,

do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were

when they rebelled against God.”

^16*Who were the people who heard God’s voice and rebelled against him? All those who were led out of Egypt by Moses. ^17*With whom was God angry for forty years? With the people who sinned, who fell down dead in the desert. ^18*When God made his solemn promise, “They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest”—of whom was he speaking? Of those who rebelled. ¹⁹We see, then, that they were not able to enter the land, because they did not believe.

4Now, God has offered us the promise that we may receive that rest he spoke about. Let us take care, then, that none of you will be found to have failed to receive that promised rest. ²For we have heard the Good News, just as they did. They heard the message, but it did them no good, because when they heard it, they did not accept it with faith. ^3*We who believe, then, do receive that rest which God promised. It is just as he said:

“I was angry and made a solemn promise:

‘They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!’ ”

He said this even though his work had been finished from the time he created the world. ^4*For somewhere in the Scriptures this is said about the seventh day: “God rested on the seventh day from all his work.” ^5*This same matter is spoken of again: “They will never enter that land where I would have given them rest.” ⁶Those who first heard the Good News did not receive that rest, because they did not believe. There are, then, others who are allowed to receive it. ^7*This is shown by the fact that God sets another day, which is called “Today”. Many years later he spoke of it through David in the scripture already quoted:

“If you hear God’s voice today,

do not be stubborn.”

^8*If Joshua had given the people the rest that God had promised, God would not have spoken later about another day. ⁹As it is, however, there still remains for God’s people a rest like God’s resting on the seventh day. ^10*For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his. ¹¹Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail as they did because of their lack of faith.