¹¹And we desire each one of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of your hope until the end, ¹²in order that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and patience.

The Reliability of God’s Promise

¹³For when^* God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself, ¹⁴saying,

“Surely I will greatly bless^b you, and I will greatly multiply^c you.”

¹⁵And so, by^* persevering, he obtained the promise. ¹⁶For people swear by what is greater than themselves, and the oath for confirmation is the end of all dispute for them. ¹⁷In the same way God, because he^* wanted to show even more to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his resolve, guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸in order that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge may have powerful encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us, ¹⁹which we have like an anchor of the soul, both firm and steadfast, and entering into the inside of the curtain, ²⁰where Jesus, the forerunner for us, entered, because he^* became a high priest forever^d according to the order of Melchizedek.

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Footnotes

*Here “when” is supplied as a component of the temporal participle (“made a promise”)
bLiterally “blessing I will bless”
cLiterally “multiplying I will multiply”
*Here “by” is supplied as a component of the participle (“persevering”) which is understood as means
*Here “because” is supplied as a component of the participle (“wanted”) which is understood as causal
*Here “because” is supplied as a component of the participle (“became”) which is understood as causal
dLiterally “to the age”