¹²So brothers and sisters, be careful that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that will turn you away from the living God. ¹³But encourage each other every day while it is “today.” ⁿ Help each other so none of you will become hardened because sin has tricked you. ¹⁴We all share in Christ if we keep till the end the sure faith we had in the beginning. ¹⁵This is what the Scripture says:

“Today listen to what he says.

Do not be stubborn as in the past

when you turned against God.”

¹⁶Who heard God’s voice and was against him? It was all those people Moses led out of Egypt. ¹⁷And with whom was God angry for forty years? He was angry with those who sinned, who died in the desert. ¹⁸And to whom was God talking when he promised that they would never enter his rest? He was talking to those who did not obey him. ¹⁹So we see they were not allowed to enter and have God’s rest, because they did not believe.

4Now, since God has left us the promise that we may enter his rest, let us be very careful so none of you will fail to enter. ²The Good News was preached to us just as it was to them. But the teaching they heard did not help them, because they heard it but did not accept it with faith. ⁿ ³We who have believed are able to enter and have God’s rest. As God has said,

“I was angry and made a promise,

‘They will never enter my rest.’ ”

But God’s work was finished from the time he made the world. ⁴In the Scriptures he talked about the seventh day of the week: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his works.” ⁿ ⁵And again in the Scripture God said, “They will never enter my rest.”

⁶It is still true that some people will enter God’s rest, but those who first heard the way to be saved did not enter, because they did not obey. ⁷So God planned another day, called “today.” He spoke about that day through David a long time later in the same Scripture used before:

“Today listen to what he says.

Do not be stubborn.”

⁸We know that Joshua ⁿ did not lead the people into that rest, because God spoke later about another day. ⁹This shows that the rest ⁿ for God’s people is still coming. ¹⁰Anyone who enters God’s rest will rest from his work as God did. ¹¹Let us try as hard as we can to enter God’s rest so that no one will fail by following the example of those who refused to obey.

Read in Logos

Hebrews 4:9: So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God…

Footnotes

nrest A place of rest God promised to give his people.
n“today” This word is taken from verse 7. It means that it is important to do these things now.
nbecause … faith Some Greek copies read “because they did not share the faith of those who heard it.”
n“And … works.” Quotation from Genesis 2:2.
nJoshua After Moses died, Joshua became leader of the Jewish people and led them into the land that God promised to give them.
nrest Literally, “sabbath rest,” meaning a sharing in the rest that God began after he created the world.