¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They didn’t receive the things God had promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a long way off. They openly said that they were outsiders and strangers on earth. ¹⁴ People who say things like that show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ What if they had been thinking of the country they had left? Then they could have returned to it. ¹⁶ Instead, they longed for a better country. They wanted a heavenly one. So God is pleased when they call him their God. In fact, he has prepared a city for them.