Hebrews 3
New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition
Moses a Servant, Christ a Son
3 Therefore, brothers and sisters,[a] holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also ‘was faithful in all[b] God’s[c] house.’ 3 Yet Jesus[d] is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honour than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s[e] house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later. 6 Christ, however, was faithful over God’s[f] house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm[g] the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.
Warning against Unbelief
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
‘Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
as on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors put me to the test,
though they had seen my works 10 for forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
and I said, “They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.”
11 As in my anger I swore,
“They will not enter my rest.”’
12 Take care, brothers and sisters,[h] that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
‘Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’
16 Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? 17 But with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Footnotes
- Hebrews 3:1 Gk brothers
- Hebrews 3:2 Other ancient authorities lack all
- Hebrews 3:2 Gk his
- Hebrews 3:3 Gk this one
- Hebrews 3:5 Gk his
- Hebrews 3:6 Gk his
- Hebrews 3:6 Other ancient authorities add to the end
- Hebrews 3:12 Gk brothers
Hebrews 3
Living Bible
3 Therefore, dear brothers whom God has set apart for himself—you who are chosen for heaven—I want you to think now about this Jesus who is God’s Messenger and the High Priest of our faith.
2 For Jesus was faithful to God who appointed him High Priest, just as Moses also faithfully served in God’s house. 3 But Jesus has far more glory than Moses, just as a man who builds a fine house gets more praise than his house does. 4 And many people can build houses, but only God made everything.
5 Well, Moses did a fine job working in God’s house, but he was only a servant; and his work was mostly to illustrate and suggest those things that would happen later on. 6 But Christ, God’s faithful Son, is in complete charge of God’s house. And we Christians are God’s house—he lives in us!—if we keep up our courage firm to the end, and our joy and our trust in the Lord.
7-8 And since Christ is so much superior, the Holy Spirit warns us to listen to him, to be careful to hear his voice today and not let our hearts become set against him, as the people of Israel did. They steeled themselves against his love and complained against him in the desert while he was testing them. 9 But God was patient with them forty years, though they tried his patience sorely; he kept right on doing his mighty miracles for them to see. 10 “But,” God says, “I was very angry with them, for their hearts were always looking somewhere else instead of up to me, and they never found the paths I wanted them to follow.”
11 Then God, full of this anger against them, bound himself with an oath that he would never let them come to his place of rest.
12 Beware then of your own hearts, dear brothers, lest you find that they, too, are evil and unbelieving and are leading you away from the living God. 13 Speak to each other about these things every day while there is still time so that none of you will become hardened against God, being blinded by the glamor[a] of sin. 14 For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as we did when we first became Christians, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.
15 But now is the time. Never forget the warning, “Today if you hear God’s voice speaking to you, do not harden your hearts against him, as the people of Israel did when they rebelled against him in the desert.”
16 And who were those people I speak of, who heard God’s voice speaking to them but then rebelled against him? They were the ones who came out of Egypt with Moses their leader. 17 And who was it who made God angry for all those forty years? These same people who sinned and as a result died in the wilderness. 18 And to whom was God speaking when he swore with an oath that they could never go into the land he had promised his people? He was speaking to all those who disobeyed him. 19 And why couldn’t they go in? Because they didn’t trust him.
Footnotes
- Hebrews 3:13 glamor, literally, “deceitfulness.”
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.