Hebrews 3:16–4:5

3:16 For which ones heard and rebelled? Was it not all who came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership?26 3:17 And against whom was God27 provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness?28 3:18 And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient? 3:19 So29 we see that they could not enter because of unbelief.

God’s Promised Rest

4:1 Therefore we must be wary1 that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, none of you may seem to have come short of it. 4:2 For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in2 with those who heard it in faith.3 4:3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’ ”4 And yet God’s works5 were accomplished from the foundation of the world. 4:4 For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,”6 4:5 but to repeat the text cited earlier:7 “They will never enter my rest!”

26	tn Grk “through Moses.”
27	tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
28	sn An allusion to God’s judgment pronounced in Num 14:29, 32.
29	tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “So” to indicate a summary or conclusion to the argument of the preceding paragraph.
1	tn Grk “let us fear.”
2	tn Or “they were not united.”
3	tc A few mss (א and a few versional witnesses) have the nominative singular participle συγκεκερασμένος (sunkekerasmenos, “since it [the message] was not combined with faith by those who heard it”), a reading that refers back to the ὁ λόγος (ho logos, “the message”). There are a few other variants here (e.g., συγκεκεραμμένοι [sunkekerammenoi] in 104, συγκεκεραμένους [sunkekeramenous] in 1881 𝔐), but the accusative plural participle συγκεκερασμένους (sunkekerasmenous), found in 𝔓13vid,46 A B C D* Ψ 0243 0278 33 81 1739 2464 pc, has by far the best external credentials. This participle agrees with the previous ἐκείνους (ekeinous, “those”), a more difficult construction grammatically than the nominative singular. Thus, both on external and internal grounds, συγκεκερασμένους is preferred.
4	sn A quotation from Ps 95:11.
5	tn Grk “although the works,” continuing the previous reference to God. The referent (God) is specified in the translation for clarity.
6	sn A quotation from Gen 2:2.
7	tn Grk “and in this again.”