Hebrews 3:11

11 As in my anger I swore, "They will not enter my rest.' "

Hebrews 3:11 Meaning and Commentary

Hebrews 3:11

So I sware in my wrath
Swearing is ascribed to God, to show the certainty of the thing spoken of; as of mercies, when he swears in love, and by his holiness; so here, of punishment, when he swears in wrath, in indignation, in sore displeasure, and the threatened evil is irrevocable and inevitable:

they shall not enter into my rest;
into the land of Canaan, called God's rest, because he promised it, and gave it to the Israelites as their rest; and where he himself had a place of rest; and where he gave the Messiah, the author of peace and rest; and which was a type of heaven, that rest from toil and labour, which remains for the people of God; and into which it is said this generation did not enter; for the Jews say ^F6,

``the generation of the wilderness have no part in the world to come:''

but this seems too harsh, for doubtless there were many who died in the wilderness, that went safe to heaven, notwithstanding all their sins and provocations.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 Tzeror Hammor, fol. 118. 1.

Hebrews 3:11 In-Context

9 where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works

10 for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, "They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.'

11 As in my anger I swore, "They will not enter my rest.' "

12 Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.