Warning against Unbelief

⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

¹² Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away^(B) from the living God. ¹³ But encourage each other daily,^(C) while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened^(D) by sin’s deception.^{(E) 14} For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality^[b] that we had at the start.^{(F) 15} As it is said:

¹⁶ For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all who came out of Egypt under Moses?^{(H) 17} With whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?^{(I) 18} And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who disobeyed? ¹⁹ So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

The Promised Rest

4 Therefore, since the promise to enter his rest remains, let us beware^[d] that none of you be found to have fallen short.^{[e] 2} For we also have received the good news just as they did. But the message they heard did not benefit them, since they were not united with those who heard it in faith.^{[f](J) 3} For we who have believed enter the rest, in keeping with what^[g] he has said,

even though his works have been finished since the foundation of the world. ⁴ For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in this way: And on the seventh day God rested from all his works.^{[i](L) 5} Again, in that passage he says, They will never enter my rest.^{[j] 6} Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience,^{(M) 7} he again specifies a certain day—today. He specified this speaking through David after such a long time:

⁸ For if Joshua^(O) had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. ⁹ Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. ¹⁰ For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his.^{(P) 11} Let us, then, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.

¹² For the word of God is living and effective^(Q) and sharper than any double-edged sword,^(R) penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.^{(S) 13} No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom^(T) we must give an account.

²⁰ The Lord responded, “I have pardoned them as you requested. ²¹ Yet as I live and as the whole earth is filled with the Lord’s glory,^{(A) 22} none of the men who have seen my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested me these ten times and did not obey me, ²³ will ever see the land I swore to give their ancestors.^(B) None of those who have despised me^(C) will see it. ²⁴ But since my servant Caleb has a different spirit and has remained loyal to me, I will bring him into the land where he has gone, and his descendants will inherit it.^{(D) 25} Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the lowlands,^[a] turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.”^(E)

²⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: ²⁷ “How long must I endure this evil community that keeps complaining about me? I have heard the Israelites’ complaints that they make against me.^{(F) 28} Tell them: As I live—this is the Lord’s declaration—I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. ²⁹ Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you twenty years old or more^(G)—because you have complained about me. ³⁰ I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised^[b] to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹ I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder^(H) into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it.^{(I) 32} But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. ³³ Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and bear the penalty for your acts of unfaithfulness until all your corpses lie scattered in the wilderness. ³⁴ You will bear the consequences of your iniquities forty years based on the number of the forty days that you scouted the land, a year for each day.^[c](J) You will know my displeasure.^{[d] 35} I, the Lord, have spoken. I swear that I will do this to the entire evil community that has conspired against me.^(K) They will come to an end in the wilderness, and there they will die.”^(L)

³⁶ So the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and who returned and incited the entire community to complain about him by spreading a negative report about the land— ³⁷ those men who spread the negative report about the land were struck down by the Lord. ³⁸ Only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men who went to scout out the land.

A Living Hope

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.^(A) Because of his great mercy^(B) he has given us new birth^(C) into a living hope^(D) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead^{(E) 4} and into an inheritance that is imperishable,^(F) undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven^(G) for you. ⁵ You are being guarded by God’s power^(H) through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.^(I)