Young's Literal Translation YLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 And faith is of things hoped for a confidence, of matters not seen a conviction,
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The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see.
2 for in this were the elders testified of;
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The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.
3 by faith we understand the ages to have been prepared by a saying of God, in regard to the things seen not having come out of things appearing;
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By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.
4 by faith a better sacrifice did Abel offer to God than Cain, through which he was testified to be righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead, doth yet speak.
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By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That's what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.
5 By faith Enoch was translated -- not to see death, and was not found, because God did translate him; for before his translation he had been testified to -- that he had pleased God well,
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By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. "They looked all over and couldn't find him because God had taken him." We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken "he pleased God."
6 and apart from faith it is impossible to please well, for it behoveth him who is coming to God to believe that He is, and to those seeking Him He becometh a rewarder.
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It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.
7 By faith Noah, having been divinely warned concerning the things not yet seen, having feared, did prepare an ark to the salvation of his house, through which he did condemn the world, and of the righteousness according to faith he became heir.
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By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn't see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.
8 By faith Abraham, being called, did obey, to go forth to the place that he was about to receive for an inheritance, and he went forth, not knowing whither he doth go;
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By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going.
9 by faith he did sojourn in the land of the promise as a strange country, in tabernacles having dwelt with Isaac and Jacob, fellow-heirs of the same promise,
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By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise.
10 for he was looking for the city having the foundations, whose artificer and constructor [is] God.
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Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations - the City designed and built by God.
11 By faith also Sarah herself did receive power to conceive seed, and she bare after the time of life, seeing she did judge Him faithful who did promise;
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By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said.
12 wherefore, also from one were begotten -- and that of one who had become dead -- as the stars of the heaven in multitude, and as sand that [is] by the sea-shore -- the innumerable.
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That's how it happened that from one man's dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.
13 In faith died all these, not having received the promises, but from afar having seen them, and having been persuaded, and having saluted [them], and having confessed that strangers and sojourners they are upon the earth,
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Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world.
14 for those saying such things make manifest that they seek a country;
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People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home.
15 and if, indeed, they had been mindful of that from which they came forth, they might have had an opportunity to return,
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If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted.
16 but now they long for a better, that is, an heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for He did prepare for them a city.
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But they were after a far better country than that - heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.
17 By faith Abraham hath offered up Isaac, being tried, and the only begotten he did offer up who did receive the promises,
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By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God. Acting in faith, he was as ready to return the promised son, his only son, as he had been to receive him -
18 of whom it was said -- `In Isaac shall a seed be called to thee;'
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and this after he had already been told, "Your descendants shall come from Isaac."
19 reckoning that even out of the dead God is able to raise up, whence also in a figure he did receive [him].
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Abraham figured that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead. In a sense, that's what happened when he received Isaac back, alive from off the altar.
20 By faith, concerning coming things, Isaac did bless Jacob and Esau;
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By an act of faith, Isaac reached into the future as he blessed Jacob and Esau.
21 by faith Jacob dying -- each of the sons of Joseph did bless, and did bow down upon the top of his staff;
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By an act of faith, Jacob on his deathbed blessed each of Joseph's sons in turn, blessing them with God's blessing, not his own - as he bowed worshipfully upon his staff.
22 by faith, Joseph dying, concerning the outgoing of the sons of Israel did make mention, and concerning his bones did give command.
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By an act of faith, Joseph, while dying, prophesied the exodus of Israel, and made arrangements for his own burial.
23 By faith Moses, having been born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw the child comely, and were not afraid of the decree of the king;
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By an act of faith, Moses' parents hid him away for three months after his birth. They saw the child's beauty, and they braved the king's decree.
24 by faith Moses, having become great, did refuse to be called a son of the daughter of Pharaoh,
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By faith, Moses, when grown, refused the privileges of the Egyptian royal house.
25 having chosen rather to be afflicted with the people of God, than to have sin's pleasure for a season,
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He chose a hard life with God's people rather than an opportunistic soft life of sin with the oppressors.
26 greater wealth having reckoned the reproach of the Christ than the treasures in Egypt, for he did look to the recompense of reward;
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He valued suffering in the Messiah's camp far greater than Egyptian wealth because he was looking ahead, anticipating the payoff.
27 by faith he left Egypt behind, not having been afraid of the wrath of the king, for, as seeing the Invisible One -- he endured;
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By an act of faith, he turned his heel on Egypt, indifferent to the king's blind rage. He had his eye on the One no eye can see, and kept right on going.
28 by faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of the blood, that He who is destroying the first-born might not touch them.
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By an act of faith, he kept the Passover Feast and sprinkled Passover blood on each house so that the destroyer of the firstborn wouldn't touch them.
29 By faith they did pass through the Red Sea as through dry land, which the Egyptians having received a trial of, were swallowed up;
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By an act of faith, Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians tried it and drowned.
30 by faith the walls of Jericho did fall, having been surrounded for seven days;
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By faith, the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, and the walls fell flat.
31 by faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with those who disbelieved, having received the spies with peace.
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By an act of faith, Rahab, the Jericho harlot, welcomed the spies and escaped the destruction that came on those who refused to trust God.
32 And what shall I yet say? for the time will fail me recounting about Gideon, Barak also, and Samson, and Jephthah, David also, and Samuel, and the prophets,
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I could go on and on, but I've run out of time. There are so many more - Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. . . .
33 who through faith did subdue kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped mouths of lions,
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Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions,
34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the mouth of the sword, were made powerful out of infirmities, became strong in battle, caused to give way camps of the aliens.
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fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies.
35 Women received by a rising again their dead, and others were tortured, not accepting the redemption, that a better rising again they might receive,
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Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection.
36 and others of mockings and scourgings did receive trial, and yet of bonds and imprisonment;
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Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons.
37 they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tried; in the killing of the sword they died; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins -- being destitute, afflicted, injuriously treated,
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We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless -
38 of whom the world was not worthy; in deserts wandering, and [in] mountains, and [in] caves, and [in] the holes of the earth;
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the world didn't deserve them! - making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.
39 and these all, having been testified to through the faith, did not receive the promise,
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Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised.
40 God for us something better having provided, that apart from us they might not be made perfect.
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God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.