King James Version KJV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
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So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He's the centerpiece of everything we believe,
2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
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faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful,
3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.
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but Jesus gets far more honor. A builder is more valuable than a building any day.
4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
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Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God.
5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
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Moses did a good job in God's house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come.
6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
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Christ as Son is in charge of the house.
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
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That's why the Holy Spirit says, Today, please listen;
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
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don't turn a deaf ear as in "the bitter uprising," that time of wilderness testing!
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
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Even though they watched me at work for forty years, your ancestors refused to let me do it my way; over and over they tried my patience.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
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And I was provoked, oh, so provoked! I said, "They'll never keep their minds on God; they refuse to walk down my road."
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
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Exasperated, I vowed, "They'll never get where they're going, never be able to sit down and rest."
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
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So watch your step, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
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For as long as it's still God's Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn't slow down your reflexes.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
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If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we're in this with Christ for the long haul.
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
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These words keep ringing in our ears: Today, please listen; don't turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
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For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren't they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt?
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
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And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn't it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
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And when he swore that they'd never get where they were going, wasn't he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
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They never got there because they never listened, never believed.
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.