Hebrews 3:7--4:2

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 

[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.