Hebrews 2:1-3

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2:2 For if the message spoken through angels ¹  proved to be so firm that every violation ²  or disobedience received its just penalty, 2:3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first communicated through the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him,

Hebrews 3:17

3:17 And against whom was God ³  provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? ⁴ 

Hebrews 10:28-29

10:28 Someone who rejected the law of Moses was put to death ⁵  without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ⁶  10:29 How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for ⁷  the Son of God, and profanes ⁸  the blood of the covenant that made him holy, ⁹  and insults the Spirit of grace?

¹ sn The message spoken through angels refers to the OT law, which according to Jewish tradition was mediated to Moses through angels (cf. Deut 33:2; Ps 68:17-18; Acts 7:38, 53; Gal 3:19; and Jub. 1:27, 29; Josephus, Ant. 15.5.3 [15.136]).

² tn Grk “through angels became valid and every violation.”

³ tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

⁴ sn An allusion to God’s judgment pronounced in Num 14:29, 32.

⁵ tn Grk “dies.”

⁶ sn An allusion to Deut 17:6.

⁷ tn Grk “tramples under foot.”

⁸ tn Grk “regarded as common.”

⁹ tn Grk “by which he was made holy.”