Hebrews 3:7--4:11

Exposition of Psalm 95: Hearing God’s Word in Faith

3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ¹ 

“Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! ² 

3:8 “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness.

3:9 “There your fathers tested me and tried me, ³  and they saw my works for forty years.

3:10 “Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering ⁴  and they have not known my ways.’

3:11 “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’” ⁵ 

3:12 See to it, ⁶  brothers and sisters, ⁷  that none of you has ⁸  an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes ⁹  the living God. ¹⁰  3:13 But exhort one another each day, as long as it is called “Today,” that none of you may become hardened by sin’s deception. 3:14 For we have become partners with Christ, if in fact we hold our initial confidence ¹¹  firm until the end. 3:15 As it says, ¹²  “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! ¹³  Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” ¹⁴  3:16 For which ones heard and rebelled? Was it not all who came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership? ¹⁵  3:17 And against whom was God ¹⁶  provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁷  3:18 And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient? 3:19 So ¹⁸  we see that they could not enter because of unbelief.

God’s Promised Rest

4:1 Therefore we must be wary ¹⁹  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 in ²⁰  with those who heard it in faith. ²¹  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!’” ²²  And yet God’s works ²³  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,” ²⁴  4:5 but to repeat the text cited earlier: ²⁵  “They will never enter my rest!” 4:6 Therefore it remains for some to enter it, yet those to whom it was previously proclaimed did not enter because of disobedience. 4:7 So God ²⁶  again ordains a certain day, “Today,” speaking through David ²⁷  after so long a time, as in the words quoted before, ²⁸  “O, that today you would listen as he speaks! ²⁹  Do not harden your hearts.” 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God ³⁰  would not have spoken afterward about another day. 4:9 Consequently a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God. 4:10 For the one who enters God’s ³¹  rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works. 4:11 Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.

[3:7]  ¹ sn The following quotation is from Ps 95:7b-11.

[3:7]  ² tn Grk “today if you hear his voice.”

[3:9]  ³ tn Grk “tested me by trial.”

[3:10]  ⁴ tn Grk “they are wandering in the heart.”

[3:11]  ⁵ tn Grk “if they shall enter my rest,” a Hebrew idiom expressing an oath that something will certainly not happen.

[3:12]  ⁶ tn Or “take care.”

[3:12]  ⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

[3:12]  ⁸ tn Grk “that there not be in any of you.”

[3:12]  ⁹ tn Or “deserts,” “rebels against.”

[3:12]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “in forsaking the living God.”

[3:14]  ¹¹ tn Grk “the beginning of the confidence.”

[3:15]  ¹² tn Grk “while it is said.”

[3:15]  ¹³ tn Grk “today if you hear his voice.”

[3:15]  ¹⁴ sn A quotation from Ps 95:7b-8.

[3:16]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “through Moses.”

[3:17]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

[3:17]  ¹⁷ sn An allusion to God’s judgment pronounced in Num 14:29, 32.

[3:19]  ¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “So” to indicate a summary or conclusion to the argument of the preceding paragraph.

[4:1]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “let us fear.”

[4:2]  ²⁰ tn Or “they were not united.”

[4:2]  ²¹ tc A few mss (א and a few versional witnesses) have the nominative singular participle συγκεκερασμένος (sunkekerasmeno", “since it [the message] was not combined with faith by those who heard it”), a reading that refers back to the ὁ λόγος (Jo logo", “the message”). There are a few other variants here (e.g., συγκεκεραμμένοι [sunkekerammenoi] in 104, συγκεκεραμένους [sunkekeramenou"] in 1881 Ï), but the accusative plural participle συγκεκερασμένους (sunkekerasmenou"), found in Ì^13vid,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 (ekeinou", “those”), a more difficult construction grammatically than the nominative singular. Thus, both on external and internal grounds, συγκεκερασμένους is preferred.

[4:3]  ²² sn A quotation from Ps 95:11.

[4:3]  ²³ tn Grk “although the works,” continuing the previous reference to God. The referent (God) is specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:4]  ²⁴ sn A quotation from Gen 2:2.

[4:5]  ²⁵ tn Grk “and in this again.”

[4:7]  ²⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:7]  ²⁷ sn Ps 95 does not mention David either in the text or the superscription. It is possible that the writer of Hebrews is attributing the entire collection of psalms to David (although some psalms are specifically attributed to other individuals or groups).

[4:7]  ²⁸ tn Grk “as it has been said before” (see Heb 3:7).

[4:7]  ²⁹ tn Grk “today if you hear his voice.”

[4:8]  ³⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:10]  ³¹ tn Grk “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.