Hebrews 3:12-4:2
New Catholic Bible
12 Take care, brethren, that none of you will ever have an evil and unbelieving heart that will cause you to forsake the living God. 13 Rather, encourage each other every day, as long as it is today, so that none of you will become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we will become partners with Christ only if we maintain firmly until the end the confidence we originally had, 15 as it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts as at the rebellion.”
16 Who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Were they not all those whom Moses had led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angered for forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned and whose corpses lay in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would never enter into his rest, if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see clearly that they were unable to enter because of their refusal to believe.
Chapter 4
The Sabbath Rest of God’s People.[a] 1 Therefore, since the promise of entering into his rest endures, we must take care that none of you be judged to have fallen short. 2 For we too have received the good news just as they did, but the message they heard was of no benefit to them because those who listened did not combine it with faith.
Footnotes
- Hebrews 4:1 The first “rest” in Scripture was the one that God took on the seventh day of creation (see Gen 2:3). The second “rest” was the one God promised to the Israelites in Canaan, but which they were not allowed to enter because of their lack of faith (see v. 2 and Ps 95:11). The third “rest” was the one Jesus took upon entering the eternal sphere after completing the work of Redemption (see Eph 1:20; 2:6; 4:8). These “rests” foreshadow the ultimate “rest” that awaits all Christians (v. 11), provided they have a living faith in the person and work of Jesus.