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So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:

“Today when you hear his voice,
    don’t harden your hearts.”[a]

Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. So there is a special rest[b] still waiting for the people of God. 10 For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. 11 So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.

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Footnotes

  1. 4:7 Ps 95:7-8.
  2. 4:9 Or a Sabbath rest.

Therefore it remains for some to enter it, yet those to whom it was previously proclaimed did not enter because of disobedience. So God[a] again ordains a certain day, “Today,” speaking through David[b] after so long a time, as in the words quoted before,[c]Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks![d] Do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God[e] would not have spoken afterward about another day. Consequently a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God. 10 For the one who enters God’s[f] rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works. 11 Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.

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Footnotes

  1. Hebrews 4:7 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  2. Hebrews 4:7 sn Ps 95 in the Hebrew does not mention David either in the text or the superscription. The writer of Hebrews might attribute Psalms as a whole to David, though some psalms are specifically attributed to other individuals or groups. Yet the Greek inscription for Ps 95 in the LXX credits the psalm to David, and the author of Hebrews frequently uses the LXX.
  3. Hebrews 4:7 tn Grk “as it has been said before” (see Heb 3:7).
  4. Hebrews 4:7 tn Grk “today if you hear his voice.”
  5. Hebrews 4:8 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  6. Hebrews 4:10 tn Grk “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.