Hebrews 3:7-19

A Serious Warning Against Unbelief

7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice,

8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness,

9 where your fathers tested [me] by trial and saw my works

10 [for] forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, and I said, 'They always go astray in their heart, and they do not know my ways.'

11 As I swore in my anger, '{They will never enter} into my rest.'"

12 Watch out, brothers, lest there be in some of you an evil, unbelieving heart, [with the result that you] fall away from the living God.

13 But encourage one another {day by day}, as long as it is called "today," so that {none of you become hardened} by the deception of sin.

14 For we have become partners of Christ, if indeed we hold fast the beginning of [our] commitment steadfast until the end,

15 {while it is said}, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

16 For who, [when they] heard [it], were disobedient? Surely [it was] not all who went out from Egypt through Moses?

17 And with whom was he angry [for] forty years? [Was it] not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness?

18 And to whom did he swear [they would] not enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient?

19 And [so] we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

Hebrews 3:7-19 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 3

The apostle having discoursed, in the preceding chapters, concerning the dignity of Christ's person, and his wondrous grace in the assumption of human nature, and suffering in the room and stead of his people, exhorts the Hebrews in this to a serious consideration of him, attention to him, and faith in him, and constancy in it; the arguments he uses to engage them to these things are taken from the grace and benefit they themselves were partakers of through him, from the office in which he was, and his faithfulness to his Father in the discharge of it, Heb 3:1,2 which is illustrated in the case of Moses, who was faithful in the house of God, and whom Christ excelled, and therefore was worthy of more honour; partly, because he is the builder of the house; and partly, because he is a Son in it, when Moses was only a servant; which house is Christ's own, and consists of true and steadfast believers in him, Heb 3:2-6, wherefore the exhortation to regard him is renewed, enforced, and expressed in the words of the Holy Ghost, Heb 3:7-11 which are taken out of Ps 95:7-11 and applied to the present case: hence the apostle cautions against unbelief, as being a great evil in itself, and bad in its consequence, causing persons to depart from the living God, Heb 3:12, in order to prevent which he advises to a daily exhortation of each other to their duty, that so they might not be hardened in sin through the deceitfulness of it, Heb 3:13 and the rather it became them to be concerned to hold fast their faith in Christ to the end, since this is the grand evidence of being a partaker of him, Heb 3:14. And then the exhortation in the above passage of Scripture is recited, Heb 3:15 to show, that though not all the persons spoken of, yet some did provoke the Lord by their unbelief, and unbecoming carriage, Heb 3:16 wherefore, by the example of punishment being inflicted on such, of which instances are given in the forefathers of these people, such as their carcasses falling in the wilderness, and their not entering into the land of Canaan, which they could not, because God swore they should not, being grieved and provoked by them, and because of their unbelief, they are dissuaded from the same evils, lest they should be punished in like manner, Heb 3:17-19.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "if they will enter"
• [b]. A quotation from Ps 95:7b-11
• [c]. *Here "[with the result that]" is supplied as a component of the infinitive ("fall away") which is understood as result
• [d]. Literally "by each day"
• [e]. Literally "not anyone of you be hardened"
• [f]. Literally "in the saying"
• [g]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("heard") which is understood as temporal